Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2: Society, Education and Human Behaviour 3031311183, 9783031311185

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Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2 Society, Education and Human Behaviour Edited by Sherma Roberts · Halimah A. F. DeShong Wendy C. Grenade · Dwayne Devonish

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2

Sherma Roberts Halimah A. F. DeShong Wendy C. Grenade  •  Dwayne Devonish Editors

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2 Society, Education and Human Behaviour

Editors Sherma Roberts School for Graduate Studies and Research The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus Bridgetown, Barbados Wendy C. Grenade Department of Humanities and Social Sciences St. George’s University True Blue, Grenada

Halimah A. F. DeShong Institute for Gender and Development Studies The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus Bridgetown, Barbados Dwayne Devonish Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus Bridgetown, Barbados

ISBN 978-3-031-31118-5    ISBN 978-3-031-31119-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31119-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To the people of the Caribbean whose lives have been and will be shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foreword

Enter a Virus It has been compared to the Spanish Flu of 1918. But the strangeness of the coronavirus affair could also be compared to H. G. Wells’ 1897 novel War of the Worlds, where Planet Earth is convulsed by an alien force, brought under its heel, until the enemy is overwhelmed by bacteria. Let me liberally adapt the opening words of the 2005 musical of Wells’ classic by Jeff Wayne, narrated by Richard Burton, to the corona pandemic: No one would have believed In the early years of the twenty-first century That human affairs were about to be sorely tested by an invisible pathogen

The first few weeks of 2020 remain hard to describe without emotion. A virus had emerged from Wuhan—a hitherto largely unknown Chinese city—and people carrying the infection were turning up in various cities and countries, and at ever galloping rates and concerns. There was incredulity and optimism at first, as islanders hoped that the virus would miss them and that their surrounding oceans and diminutive sizes and populations would somehow provide a cordon sanitaire, keeping the pesky microorganism at bay. But islands and islanders are not the isolated and forlorn spaces and peoples often wrongly imagined and stereotyped in fiction: they are intimately connected to the rest of the world on whose flows and dynamics—of people, money, freight—they depend and thrive. And so, by March 2020, the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 had arrived home. And thus, vii

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set in the shock, the panic, and the realisation that the ‘enemy’ was now here, within and amongst us. Islandness and smallness were now parts of the problem as well as the solution. A number of island territories have deemed it best to enforce absolute restrictions on travel to or from their jurisdictions, with all the associated challenges and difficulties that this imposed, both on those locked in and those locked out. In most other small island states however, the policy response was different. Governments rose to the challenge to ‘flatten the curve’: seeking an elusive and dangerous balancing act between maintaining economic and social activity while thwarting an unbridled escalation of infections which would have led to the overwhelming of their fragile health sectors and thinly peopled ranks of doctors and epidemiological and paramedical staff. The ‘V’ words that ruled the airwaves in 2020 were ‘virus’ and soon ‘ventilators’, as medical units scrambled to obtain and operate machines that could assist the breathing of the severely infected. By 2021, the V words had changed to ‘vaccines’ and ‘variants’, as science came up with responses to neutralise the virus and build herd immunity in populations; even as the virus evolved and morphed into more contagious (but mercifully less lethal) strains. By 2022, it appears that—with the exception of China—the worst may be over; most people are jabbed and leading fairly normal lives; and the protocols of social distancing and mask wearing are no longer imposed (although encouraged), and perhaps remaining compulsory when visiting hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, health centres, and people’s homes. Admittedly, another Omicron variant is making its rounds; but there is no longer that palpable and heightened sense of pan-national emergency and anxiety. Indeed, the V words that topped the headlines in 2022 are not COVID-19 related: they are Vladimir and Volodymyr, the first names of the respective heads of state of Russia and Ukraine, engulfed in war.

The Great Disruptor Writing in 2023, the coronavirus is not an afterthought; it is not a closed historical chapter. And it is certainly not fiction. Ask the almost seven million who have perished from the virus. It has been a war-of-sorts and, in the end, a triumph of human ingenuity, resilience, and adaptability. It has pushed through words into our vocabulary which had hitherto been reserved for abstract others: such as vaccine hesitancy, lockdowns, and quarantine. It has impacted on how we work, how we commute, how we

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spend our holidays, how we live together, if and how we pray, how we teach and learn, and how we do business. It has affected people’s decisions to have children or get married. It has alerted communities everywhere to the significance of mental health. It has led to a surge in the number of pets (dogs in particular) and heightened human-animal bonds. It has forced people to live together together, leading to an increase in cases of separation and divorce. In spite of densely populated spaces, a new sense of loneliness has crept in, especially with the aged and infirm, forced to stay inside, possibly leading to suicide. The pesky virus and its multifaceted effects have inspired so much literature, including the poignant poetry of Olive Senior, the Poet Laureate of Jamaica (featured in this collection).

This Double Volume This double volume is a supreme testimony to the COVID-19 saga in the Caribbean. The intrepid team of co-editors have ably assembled a rich compendium of chapters that address the first burning question: how has COVID-19 impacted on the ways we live and ‘do’ things in the island Caribbean? The resulting suite of chapters covers an impressive portfolio of social, political, economic and environmental insights, practices, and challenges all drawn from distinct target populations—from the expression of individual liberties to the practice of unemployment insurance (Volume 1); and from prison inmates to victims of domestic violence (Volume 2). The scope of analysis is also varied, ranging from individual Caribbean jurisdictions and regional sub-groupings, to the whole Caribbean archipelago. Of course, the drama that seeps through these pages is a poignant testimony that the impact of a pandemic on a range of small island states and territories can be quite idiosyncratic. Here is a geography that has been troubled, and continues to be troubled, by deep questions about its vulnerability in the face of disaster; its ability to rebound and express resilience; and its stock of social and economic capital being able to ride, or respond to, the inevitable waves of crisis. Small island governments that were already ubiquitous became even more assertive in their public policies, notably in their health policies. Sensitive and dominant industries, like international tourism, went belly up. Issues of food security exposed a fragile dependence on imports. Realpolitik confirmed that small states did not carry much clout when it comes to securing ventilators (in 2020) and

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vaccines (in 2021). Personal relations between politicians and top public health officers could make or break virus containment strategies. The Caribbean is gifted with its own regional university, and I am delighted that a cross-disciplinary team from the University of the West Indies has bravely taken up the challenge to present readers with this detailed scorecard of the aftermath of COVID-19 in this particular region. Interestingly, it is a team of largely female academics who edit and contribute to the volume. This is quite a unique feature in small island state scholarship beyond the Caribbean. Of course, the following pages do not just describe and document; they also analyse and propose. And it is here the second burning question is raised: now that we have lived through and survived the pandemic, what are the prospects for a ‘new normal’? Has the coronavirus experience signposted new ways of doing the same things, or suggested altogether new things to do? Beyond the increase in ‘platform work’ and food delivery services, are the parameters of vulnerability, resilience, and anything in between now being seen in a somewhat different light? And with what consequences on women and men, business, governments, and civil society? Perhaps a more vibrant, robust, and sustainable Caribbean? It may be too early to come up with hard-and-fast conclusions on this point. Indeed, looking specifically at international tourism, we are probably led to assume that a ‘post-­ pandemic panic’ has set in and we are back to where we were in the benchmark (pre-COVID-19) year of 2019, or hoping to get there as quickly as possible, perhaps forgetting that cries and concerns about ‘over tourism’ and environmental degradation had become quite strident in many parts of the region by that time. In such a case, one wonders: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose? Have past concerns been forgotten or side-lined in the rush to get back on track? Have we learnt anything at all? It is a pertinent question, and I urge readers of this double volume to approach the text with a critical stance. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean Volume 2 makes a seminal contribution to the literature, and it does so now, when we can finally speak of a before-COVID (BC!), during COVID, and postCOVID epochs (while acknowledging that the virus is likely to remain around for some time). The books’ encyclopaedic content provides readers with the details of the facts ‘on the ground’ and highlights the massive disruption that the pandemic has caused, across the board. Readers will also espy morsels and insights of wisdom and prediction in these pages that help us to approach the subject matter with an open and

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inquisitive mind. After all, the future beckons: other than for its historicity, does not past have value precisely for its ability to inform future action, behaviour, and policy? Indeed, pertinent questions are raised, and which future Caribbean scholars and practitioners and peoples at large will help to address, and perhaps answer. Many address the obvious challenges of small size and small scale, and to which the only sensible solution is regional collaboration. With the scramble towards ‘vaccine nationalism’, the region may have witnessed a debacle similar to that of the West Indies Federation. Other contributions deal with the messy challenges of human comportment and psychology: the hesitancy towards vaccination; the turn towards, or away from, religion; and the diverse impacts on social groupings, from children to the aged, infirm, and disabled. The breadth of topics and enquiry is precisely what I like most about these volumes and is probably the main contribution to the scholarly literature. The phenomenal reach means that they have most bases covered and proudly defy academic nationalism. Other books or articles have focused on the obvious COVID-19-related suspects: its implications for health, for international tourism, for online learning, or for working from home. To cite the title of one of the contributions, the coronavirus may be too small to see but simply too painful to ignore. And it is just as painful to ignore the sheer extent of the virus’ impact. Indeed, which parts of our lives has this pesky virus not affected? Kudos to Sherma Roberts, Wendy C. Grenade, Dwayne Devonish, and Halimah DeShong, plus the dozens of contributors, for regaling us with this unique, timely, and insightful, homegrown collection of interdisciplinary perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean. Godfrey Baldacchino: Professor of Sociology, University of Malta, Malta; Editor, Island Studies Journal (2006–2016); Small States & Territories Journal (2018–); Past President, International Small Islands Studies Association (ISISA) (2014–2020). University of Malta, Msida, Malta 

Godfrey Baldacchino

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the publisher and team at Palgrave Macmillan for sharing the vision of these two volumes. We wish to thank the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Troy Lorde, for providing monetary and institutional support for the publication of these books. A special thanks to Dr. Glenda Niles for her editorial expertise, respect for timelines and her professionalism throughout the process. The editors also extend gratitude to all contributors who graciously and valiantly rose to the challenge of telling the Caribbean story.

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Contents

Part I COVID-19 and Caribbean Society   1 1 Introduction  3 Wendy C. Grenade, Halimah A. F. DeShong , Sherma Roberts , and Dwayne Devonish 2 In  the ‘Shadow’ of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Naming Gendered Violence in the Era of a Global Health Crisis 11 Halimah A. F. DeShong 3 A  Clinical Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence During COVID-19 in Jamaica 31 Karen Carpenter 4 Disrupted  Economy and Sociality: Examining the Socio-economic Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Low-Income Communities in Guyana 49 Duane Edwards 5 Social  Capital in the Contexts of Barbados and Jamaica: The Crisis of COVID-19 67 Alana Griffith

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6 The  COVID-19 Incubator: Unpacking the Impact of the Pandemic on the Triple Vulnerabilities Experienced by Marginalised Communities 89 Shinique Walters and Olivene Burke 7 Spread  and Severity of COVID-19: A Data-­Driven Exploratory Analysis of Vulnerability in the Caribbean111 Godfrey St. Bernard 8 Afflicted  Verses for Afflicted Times: An Exploration of Olive Senior’s Pandemic Poetry: First Wave141 Debra Providence Part II COVID-19 Religion and Rights 157 9 COVID-19  and Human Rights in Caribbean Prisons: Evidence from Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago159 Corin Bailey, Randy Seepersad, Lina Marmolejo, Sabine M. de Vries, and Danny Carr 10 D  isruptions and Transformations: COVID-­19 and Social Lives of Churches in Barbados181 Latoya Lazarus 11 The  Role of Faith-Based Organisations in Shaping Caribbean Responses to COVID-­19 Public Health Measures205 Natasha Sobers , Natalie Greaves , Kim R. Quimby , and Heather Harewood Part III Psycho-social Impacts of COVID-19 231 12 Extending  the Theory of Planned Behaviour Model Predicting Vaccine Intentions: The Roles of Conspiracy Ideation and Risk Perception233 Teixiera Dulal-Arthur

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13 COVID-19  and Women in the Informal Sector: The Psychological Impact251 Cheryl Cadogan-McClean and Joan Cuffie 14 The  Impact of COVID-19 on the Work-Life Balance of Women in Barbados273 Nicole S. Knight 15 The  Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Caribbean297 Catherine Trotman 16 An  Overview of the Psychosocial and Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Children and Their Parents in the Caribbean337 Debra D. Joseph and Roshnie Doon 17 Are  Caribbean COVID-19 Policies Ageist? An Analysis from Barbados, Jamaica and the Bahamas369 Thérèse Odle-James, Adrienne Thompson, LaShanda Dorsett, Tara Woodside-Coakley, and Julian McKoy Davis Part IV Education, Innovation and Technology 393 18 Breaching  the Education Boundaries: COVID, Classrooms and Shifting Technologies395 Coreen J. Leacock, Andrea K. Veira, and S. Joel Warrican 19 Swimming  Against the Tide, Flipped Upside Down: Navigating the Teaching and Learning Environment in the COVID-­19 Pandemic415 Leah Garner-O’Neale 20 Locked  Down or Locked Out? The Push and Pull of Maintaining Academic Integrity Using E-Proctoring Software439 Sonia C. Mahon, Glenda H. Gay, and Leah Garner-O’Neale

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21 Social  Media, the Communication Tool Used by Caribbean Public Health Entities During the Pandemic: An Examination463 Sheena Warner-Edwards 22 Pivoting  Towards Emergency Remote Teaching: A Case Study of the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity491 Glenda H. Gay, Leah Garner-O’Neale , and Sonia Greenidge Franklyn 23 COVID-19  and Big Data Research: Techniques and Applications in the Caribbean513 Richard Ramsawak and Preeya S. Mohan 24 Afterword:  Re-imagining Caribbean Futures Post COVID-19545 Halimah A. F. DeShong , Dwayne Devonish, Wendy C. Grenade, and Sherma Roberts Index557

Notes on Contributors

Corin  Bailey  is the director of the Center for Criminal Justice and Security at the University of the West Indies, Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. He situates his work within the field of sociology with a special interest in crime/violence-related research. His work on Caribbean crime has resulted in the publication of scholarly work by way of academic journals, books, and book chapters. Bailey has also conducted policy analysis for national, regional, and international governments and agencies. These have included the Government of Jamaica, the Government of Barbados, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), CARICOM, the Central Development Bank (CDB), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Olivene Burke  is the executive director of the Mona Social Services at the University of the West Indies (UWI) since 2011. She combines her academic work to her passion for marginalised community development. Burke utilises skills as Lecturer in Transformational Leadership, Human Resource Management, and Learning Strategies to impact lives in communities and at the higher education level. Her research interests are in education, leadership, quality assurance, community intervention and development, violence reduction, and sports. Cheryl  Cadogan-McClean is Lecturer in Industrial/Organisational Psychology in the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology at the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies, Barbados. She holds a PhD in Industrial/Organisational Psychology and is a Certified Health and Wellness Coach. Her research focuses on xix

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workplace wellness, stress, and ethical decision-making. An experienced industrial/organisational psychologist, she has conducted training in stress management, coaching to enhance employee performance, conflict resolution, communication skills, and other human resources-­related areas. Karen Carpenter  is head and a senior lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Mona Campus Unit, University of the West Indies, Jamaica. Her areas of specialisation include gender and sexuality, interpersonal dynamics, diversity, and relational challenges. She is a psychologist and Florida Board Certified Clinical Sexologist. She is also the editor of Interweaving Tapestries of Culture and Sexuality in the Caribbean; author of Love & Sex: The Basics and Questioning Caribbean Jewish Identity; and co-author of the upcoming Language, Race & the Global Jamaican. Carpenter is the host of ‘Love & Sex’ for radio and television. Her research interests include gender and human sexuality, psycholinguistics, and phenomenology. Carpenter is also the director for The Caribbean Sexuality Research Group (CSRG) free Sexology Clinic at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Danny Carr  is a PhD candidate and a research assistant in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He has worked on several criminal justice projects in the Caribbean and is currently working on the Regional Caribbean Police Professionalization and Modernization Project being implemented by the Pan American Development Foundation. Danny is a member of the Police Research Group at UWI and holds a Master’s Degree in Anti-Corruption Studies from the International AntiCorruption Academy and a Master’s Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of the West Indies. Joan  Cuffie  is Lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. She is the Coordinator of BSc Psychology and MSc Applied Psychology programmes in the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, UWI, Cave Hill Campus. She has been the Faculty Liaison Officer for the UWI, University of California Education Abroad Programme since July 2007. She is also a trainer who has facilitated a wide range of training workshops in education, educational psychology, gender and education, gender and development issues, and peer education. Her current research interests include the psychological impact

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of gender issues on educational achievement and participation, gender and political ambition, gender and psychology, and gender and sports. Halimah A. F. DeShong  is a senior lecturer and head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Her research and publications include a focus on gendered violence, feminist methodologies, anticolonial feminisms, qualitative interviewing, and the analysis of talk and text. She is the co-editor of Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality (2021), and is editor/author of several special issues of academic journals, refereed journal articles, and book chapters. DeShong served as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ (SVG) Ambassador and Second Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (December 2019 to December 2021) for the country’s tenure on the UN Security Council. She has advised Caribbean governments on genderbased violence policies and laws, author of SVG’s National Gender-Based Violence Action Plan, co-creator of a gender-based violence/health and family life education (GBV/HFLE) curriculum for post-secondary school students, and was lead researcher and author of the qualitative component of the UN Women/CARICOM/Caribbean Development Bank Women’s Health Survey on violence against women in Grenada. Dwayne  Devonish is Professor of Management and Organisational Behaviour in the Department of Management Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies, Barbados. His primary scholarly and research interests include organisational health and wellness, human resource management practice, leadership and employee relations, and strategic organisational management. Sabine  M.  de Vries  studied sociology with a focus on juvenile delinquency and judicial youth policy. In 2010 she became a full-time researcher at the Research Institute for Social Science, Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Suriname, and has conducted research on several prison-related projects for international organisations such as the ‘Survey of Individuals Deprived of Liberty: Caribbean 2016–2019 Suriname Country Report’ (2020) for the International Development Bank; the ‘Health, Safety and Protection of Children in Suriname: Sub-study Children In (Pre-) Detention’ for UNICEF (2018); and ‘the National Resocialization Plan’ for the Pan American Development Fund (2014). All projects were in

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collaboration with the local Ministry of Justice and Police. Her latest publication regards restorative justice. Roshnie Doon  holds a PhD in Economic Development Policy, an MSc in Economics and a BSc in Economics and Management Studies (with honours). Her current research interests have focused heavily on the intersection between labour, gender, and education economics, as well as applied econometrics, with special concentration on the labour market effects of educational mismatch, gender and wage inequality in Trinidad and Tobago experienced by minority groups, and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). LaShanda Dorsett  is a registered nurse and a trained Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse in the Bahamas. She has been in the field of nursing since 2007, and is currently employed at the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre for the past 14 years. She has spent most of her professional career in the field of psychiatry and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Health majoring in Gerontology at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Teixiera Dulal-Arthur  is a student of psychology at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Her main research interests are mental health, statistical analyses, psychometrics, and research methodology. She has written a policy brief with the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology examining the effects of unemployment on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is currently working on several papers including proposed interventions for improving mental health and wellness during the pandemic, the mental health stressors associated with vaccine pressure, and the perceptions of presenteeism among teachers in Barbados. Duane  Edwards lectures in the Department of Sociology at the University of Guyana, Guyana. His research areas include ethnic dynamics in plural societies, the social implications of Caribbean philosophical and development thought, and socio-cultural systems in developing societies. His main research project explores the theoretical linkage between social differentiation and identity politics. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of the West Indies and a BSc from the University of Guyana. Leah Garner-O’Neale  is Lecturer in Chemistry at the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Barbados. She

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completed her Doctorate in Theoretical/Computational Chemistry but her passion for teaching has fuelled her research agenda in science education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She has mentored postgraduate students in theoretical/computational chemistry, environmental science, and science/chemistry education and has conducted several workshops and training sessions for teachers in both the face-to-face and online environments. Leah is a recipient of the Principal’s Award for Outstanding Teaching as well as the Certificate in Teaching and Learning (CETL)/Guild certificate of recognition for outstanding contribution to student learning. Glenda H. Gay  is a lecturer at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. She holds a PhD in Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University and has written several peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on managing large online classes, and readiness for online teaching and learning. She is also the recipient of the Principal’s Award for Excellence in Teaching as well as Certificates of Appreciation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. Natalie Greaves  received his MBBS degree from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and PhD from Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK. She is a qualitative researcher, and Lecturer in Public Health at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, where she also coordinates the MPhil/PhD Programme in Public Health and Epidemiology. Her research portfolio revolves around the exploration of lived experience data to inform public health policy, particularly in the areas of cancer control and palliative care. Natalie has brought her research expertise to the infectious disease and planetary health space, aiding in the exploration of the intersection between COVID-19 and resilience mechanisms amongst the peoples of small developing states. Sonia  Greenidge  Franklyn  is the executive director of the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity and Lecturer in Communications at the University of the West Indies, Barbados. She is a certified trainer in the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI 360) methodology, as well as an assessor and external verifier in the competency-based system and has facilitated training in organisational change management and institutional strengthening and completed several executive recruitment exercises for broad cross-section of Caribbean institutions. Greenidge Franklyn sits on the boards of a number of organisations in Barbados and was instrumental in the development of occupational standards, which are used to

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determine workplace competence. She is also a mentor for master’s and doctoral students. Wendy  C.  Grenade  holds a PhD and an MA in International Studies from the University of Miami, with concentrations in comparative politics and international relations, and an MA in Human Resource Management from the University of Westminster, London. She is a professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the School of Arts and Sciences, St. George’s University (SGU), Grenada. Prior to joining SGU in August 2022, Grenade was employed for 16 years with The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Political Science. At The UWI, she served as deputy dean (Outreach and Graduate Studies) at the Faculty of Social Sciences, and as head of the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology. Prior to joining The UWI, she taught as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Atlantic University and was also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Miami, European Union Center. Her research interests include governance and democracy, regional health security, and Caribbean politics. She has authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles and is the editor of The Grenada Revolution: Reflections and Lessons (2015). In addition to her experience in the field of higher education, Grenade was employed with the Government of Grenada, for 20 years, in the Grenada Public Service and the Grenada Diplomatic Service, with postings in Washington D.C. and London. Alana Griffith  is Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Griffith has served as a commissioner on the CARICOM Commission on Marijuana and has undertaken consultancies with several national and sub-regional agencies. Her specialist research interests include cannabis/marijuana and its social dimensions, welfare systems in developing countries, and broader issues surrounding social justice. Griffith holds a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Kent and an MSc in Social Policy from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. She is a founding member of the Caribbean Sociological Association and a member of the Social Policy Association and the Caribbean Studies Association. She presently sits on the Board of the Barbados Medical Cannabis Licensing Authority.

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Heather Harewood  is Lecturer in Public Health and Epidemiology, and head of the Public Health Group at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. Her research interests are health systems-based and align with her experience as a public health clinician and administrator. She uses qualitative and mixed methods approaches to examine maternal and child health issues, including breastfeeding, nutrition, and childhood obesity; the experiences and perceptions of cancer survivors in accessing health care; and the health system impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Debra D. Joseph, PhD  is Lecturer in Social Work and a coordinator of the Social Work Graduate Programme at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Joseph holds a BSc Degree in Social Work with a minor in Psychology with First-Class Honours and a Master of Social Work in Clinical from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. She is also a clinical social worker who has been working with individuals and families for over 14 years. Her research interests have been in the field of HIV/AIDS, environmental justice and sustainability, domestic violence, and women in fisheries. Her current publications include HIV/AIDS, environmental justice and sustainability, and domestic violence. She recently coped the 2019 Jeremy Collymore Award for Research in Humanitarian Response and Disaster Risk Management from CEDEMA. Nicole S. Knight  is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Knight holds a BSc (Hons) in Management, an MBA in International Management, and a PhD in Management. Knight teaches in the areas of organisational behaviour and international business at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research focuses primarily on the areas of leadership and culture and their influence on people in organisations. Knight is a member of the Human Resource Management Association of Barbados (HRMAB) and participates in many international conferences for research purposes. Knight also conducts consulting assignments for a number of local and regional entities. Latoya Lazarus  is a research fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. She obtained a PhD in Sociology from York University, with a focus on cultures and identities. Lazarus’ research interests are in the fields of sociology of religion, citizenship, gender, and sexuality

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studies. Lazarus is one of the few Caribbeanists examining the intimate linkages between Christianity and citizenship within the Anglophone Caribbean. Specifically, her research grapples with the question of the ongoing but changing role of Christianity in Anglophone Caribbean development, especially as it relates to social justice, law reform, and the interpretations of international human rights discourses within the region. Coreen J. Leacock  has over 40 years of experience as an educator and researcher. A trained teacher of mathematics, she has a keen interest in the use of technology in education and has training and experience in the use of technology in delivery of instruction. She has also been involved in professional development for teachers in the use of technology to enhance their classroom practices. She is a trained research methodologist with a wealth of experience planning and executing research, including monitoring the implementation of technology in education in Barbados. She has written peer-reviewed papers, as well as produced conference and technical papers in the area. Sonia C. Mahon  is a lecturer at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, and a deputy dean of faculty. She holds an MSc in Information Technology/Information Systems from Boston University. She has written and made conference presentations aligned with her research interests which include leveraging and application of ICTs for competitive advantage, user perceptions of ICTs, and enhancing the student experience through systems improvement. She is a recipient of the Campus’ Positioning the University to Lead through Service Excellence (PULSE) Award. Lina  Marmolejo is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University (GMU), USA.  Her research interests include criminal justice and security sector reform, pre-trial justice, community corrections, rehabilitation, and reentry programmes. Her dissertation research examines pre-trial justice in five Caribbean countries. Her work has been published in Criminology and Public Policy, Experimental Criminology, and Victims and Offenders. Prior to joining GMU, she worked for the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States, in the design, management, and implementation of international development projects. Julian  McKoy  Davis  is a social gerontologist by profession and a passionate advocate representing the issues of older adults. She is a lecturer

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and engaged in teaching, research, community outreach, and policy influence at the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre (MAWC), University of the West Indies. Her research interests are focussed on social and economic issues affecting older adults to include: financial preparation for retirement and old age, social security and benefits for older adults, social policy planning and programming for older adults, residential care facilities, and disaster preparedness and management, as well as elder abuse. She is a member of the Board of the National Council for Senior Citizens in Jamaica, a public speaker, and a short course facilitator; she has also written academic articles as an author and co-author. Preeya S. Mohan  is a fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. As a graduate of the SALISES, St Augustine, with a PhD in Economic Development Policy (high commendation), she is an applied economist skilled in the use of sophisticated econometric methods, and in data analysis more generally. She has conducted research on and is widely published in a range of topics focused around Caribbean growth and sustainable development, including natural disasters and climate change, diversification, innovation and knowledge economies, debt and public finance, and entrepreneurship. Food Policy, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Ecological Economics, and International Journal of Disaster Risk Science are some of the international peer-­reviewed journals where Mohan’s work has been published. Thérèse  Odle-James  is a clinical social worker by profession. She is a lecturer and director of Field Education at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Her research interest includes adolescent psychopathology, child abuse, field education, and ageing. She is a member of the Caribbean Association of Social Workers and the International Association of Schools of Social Work. Debra Providence  was born in St Vincent and the Grenadines and is an educator, writer, and researcher. Her research interests include Caribbean and African American women writers, science/speculative fiction, graphic novels, feminism, and creative writing pedagogy. Her works have appeared in Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies, POUi, Callaloo, and Sable LitMag. She currently teaches West Indian literature, creative writing, and contemporary science fiction at the Cave Hill Campus.

xxviii 

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Kim  R.  Quimby  is Senior Lecturer in Immunology at the Chronic Disease Research Centre and a clinician with over 20 years’ experience. Her research interests are in implementation science, which studies strategies influencing the translation of evidence-based interventions into regular practice, and the scale-up of these practices into the communities. She is the principal investigator of the Barbados Diabetes Remission Study-2, a community-based intervention that works with, not just through, faithbased organisations (FBOs), as the FBOs are seen as active partners and not simply conduits of the efforts to control non-­communicable diseases in surrounding communities. Richard  Ramsawak  is executive director of Competitive Insights and Data Analytics Services Limited (CIDA); part-time lecturer at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), the University of the West Indies (UWI); and former head of the Center of Strategy and Competitiveness—Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, UWI. He has significant experience coordinating the development and implementation of national-level strategic plans and competitiveness initiatives domestically and internationally. He has participated as a facilitator for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)-sponsored Caribbean Growth Forum and acted as lead consultant for the Competitive Analysis of the Southwest and 4C Growth Poles of Trinidad and Tobago, a project commissioned by the Economic Development Board of the Ministry of Planning and Development. Ramsawak is an Affiliate Member of the ‘Microeconomics of Competitiveness Network’ of the Institute of Competitiveness, Harvard Business School. Sherma Roberts  is a senior lecturer in Tourism and director (Ag.) of the School for Graduate Studies and Research at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. In addition to teaching, she has served as the chairman of the Tobago Tourism Agency and previously held positions as chairman of the Tourism Advisory Council in Barbados and deputy chair of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority. She is the lead author in the widely used book Contemporary Caribbean Tourism: Concept and Cases and has co-edited four other books, the most recent being, Managing Crises in Tourism: Resilience Strategies from the Caribbean. Roberts has written and presented papers in areas pertaining to community participation, corporate social responsibility, sustainable tourism, diaspora tourism, destination management, tourism resilience, and tourism entrepreneurship. Roberts holds a PhD from Brunel University, an MSc

  NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 

xxix

distinction from the University of Surrey, and a BA in History and Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations from The University of the West Indies. Randy  Seepersad  is a criminologist and head of the Department of Criminology at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago. Seepersad holds a PhD. from the University of Toronto and an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge. Seepersad specialises in research methodology and statistics and has a research interest in economic deprivation and crime, gang violence, youth crime and justice, and penology. Seepersad has written numerous books, including Crime and Security in Trinidad and Tobago (2016). His work has also been published in a number of peer-refereed journals including the Caribbean Journal of Criminology, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, and the Journal of Gang Research. Natasha  Sobers is Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, University of the West Indies (UWI), a lead researcher at the Barbados National Registry for Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases, and a medical doctor with over 20 years of clinical experience. She collaborates with Ministries of Health and Wellness regionally, the Pan American Health Organization, Healthy Caribbean and Coalition, and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on surveillance and prevention of infectious and non-­infectious diseases and the promotion of population health. Sobers’ research and publications have focused on identifying trends in social determinants of disease and applying implementation science methods to programmes and policies aimed at reducing inequities. She uses surveillance and epidemiological modelling to contribute to communicable and non-communicable disease prevention and control. Godfrey St. Bernard  is the acting director at Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He has studied population dynamics across Latin America and the Caribbean for the past 30 years. Having pioneered the establishment of MSc in Development Statistics in 2008, St. Bernard successfully co-ordinated the programme in the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) for the 12-year period 2008–2020. As a demographer/statistician, he has advised major international institutions on technical matters pertaining to

xxx 

Notes on Contributors

predicting, projecting, and forecasting population sizes and other related social and demographic phenomena across Latin America and the Caribbean. St. Bernard has been a past president of the Caribbean Studies Association and currently the chief editor of the new online Journal of the Caribbean Association of Professional Statisticians. Adrienne  Thompson  works as a medical officer in the Department of Otolaryngology at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, Jamaica. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Basic Medical Sciences majoring in Pharmacology and her MBBS from the University of the West Indies. Currently she is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Public Health majoring in Gerontology at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. She enjoys digital artistry and would love to be more interactive with the growing public health community in the chosen area of gerontology. Catherine  Trotman  is a licenced clinical psychologist specialising in adult and childhood trauma and personality disorders. She lectures in psychology at the graduate and undergraduate levels in the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work & Psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Trotman also works within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she manages the psychological care of paediatric patients who have been hospitalised due to abuse or neglect. Her research interests include topics surrounding child abuse and neglect, suicidality, pain management and neurocognitive function, and the intersection between mental and physical health. Andrea  K.  Veira is Assistant Lecturer in Science Education at the University of the West Indies, Five Islands Campus, and has experience in the integration of technology in education and agriculture. She is an enthusiastic user of technology for educational purposes and an advocate for the use of technology in teaching and learning, even pre-COVID-19. She is a trained teacher with experience at the secondary and tertiary levels in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her research interests include ICT integration in education, and she has conducted research in this area in the region. She has written on the use

  Notes on Contributors 

xxxi

of technology in education and also presented conference papers on the area. Shinique Walters  is a lecturer in the Department of Government where she teaches both research methods and gender studies. Shinique is also a research fellow at the Centre for Leadership and Government. She has worked on a number of international, regional, and local projects that have contributed to both local and regional development. She has worked in the areas of community development, project management, institutional research, monitoring and evaluation, and gender studies and has written several reports and academic papers that look at community-based interventions, social development, quantitative and qualitative research, and aid development for both government and non-governmental organisations. Sheena Warner-Edwards  holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Essex, UK, and a BSc Degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of the West Indies. Sheena gained a wealth of experience as the social media coordinator for the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and communications officer on the Global Health Advocacy Incubator Childhood Obesity Prevention Project. Sheena as a public health consultant has served as the project manager to the National NCD (noncommunicable diseases) Commission Barbados, Health Promotion and Prevention Consultant, and assistant manager to the COVID-19 hotline to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Barbados. Chronic disease research, HIV/STI treatment and prevention, and health promotion and assisting in the Barbados COVID-19 response have kept her busy for the past 12 years. Sheena loves to travel and has spent lengths of time in Ireland, England, Scotland, New Zealand, France, Portugal, Spain, the USA, and across the Caribbean. S.  Joel  Warrican  is a trained teacher with experience from nursery to tertiary levels. He brings a wealth of knowledge about the field of online education, having had experience in using technology for teaching and learning, from both an administrative and a practice standpoint. A trained research methodologist, he has worked with several research teams investigating a wide range of educational phenomena, including teaching and learning with technology. He has published works in the area, as well as produced several technical and conference papers on the use of technology in education. His involvement in education in the region at the policy level

xxxii 

Notes on Contributors

has provided him with insights into thinking behind the policies and actions taken in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tara Woodside-Coakley  is from the Bahamas, where she is employed as a registered staff nurse by the Ministry of Health in the Department of Public health. She received her BSc in Nursing from the University of the Bahamas and is currently studying at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, to obtain her Master’s Degree in Public Health and Gerontology. She loves being able to provide medical attention, love, compassion, and knowledge to older persons, helping them to live their best lives.

Abbreviations

A&E Accident and Emergency AABR Average Abnormal Returns AC Air Conditioning ACE Adverse Childhood Experiences AI Artificial Intelligence AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ANOVA Analysis of Variance ANT Antigua and Barbuda API Agency for Public Information AR Abnormal Returns ASD Autism Spectrum Disorders BA Barbados Advocate BAH The Bahamas BAR Barbados BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BDF Barbados Defence Force BEL Belize BEST Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation BGIS Barbados Government Information Service BIMAP Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity Brief COPE Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced BSG British Society of Gerontology BVI British Virgin Islands BXC Barbados Christian Council C.R Critical ratios CAABR Cumulative Average Abnormal Returns

xxxiii

xxxiv 

ABBREVIATIONS

CAAR CADRES CAMHS CAPRI CARE CARICOM CARPHA CASP CAT-1984

Cumulative Average Abnormal Returns Caribbean Development Research Services Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services Caribbean Policy Research Institute COVID-19 Allocation of Resources for Employees Caribbean Community Caribbean Public Health Agency Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment CAY Cayman Islands CB Conspiracy Beliefs CC Commonwealth Caribbean CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC-CERC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication CDMS COVID-19 Decision-Making System CECP Community Elder Care Companion Programme CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis CFI Comparative Fit Index CGCED Caribbean Group for Cooperation in Economic Development CIBC First Caribbean Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce First Caribbean CIOG Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana CMIN Chi-square Value COVID-19 2019 Coronavirus Disease CSEC Caribbean Secondary Exit Examinations CSSE Center for Systems Science and Engineering CT scans Computerized Tomography Scan CTs Cash Transfers CUB Cuba CUR Curacao DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale—21 Items DN Dominica News DOM Dominica DRMA Disaster Risk Management Act DRP Dominican Republic DV Domestic Violence EC Eastern Caribbean ECHR European Convention on Human Rights ECJBTE Eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

 ABBREVIATIONS 

xxxv

EDMU Education Development Management Unit EOC Emergency Operating Centre EPI-WIN Information Network for Epidemics ER Emergency Room ERT Emergency Remote Teaching EU European Union EUCPHA European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid FAQs Frequently Asked Questions FB Facebook FBDM Facebook Disaster Maps FBO Faith-Based Organisation FBO-info-sm Faith-Based Organisation Social Media as an Information Dissemination Tool FBO-tra-info-dis Faith-Based Organisation Training Information Dissemination FBO-Tra-PH Faith-Based Organisation Training in Basic COVID Public Health GBV Gender-Based Violence GC Guyana Chronicle GDP Gross Domestic Product GOB Government of Barbados GOJ Government of Jamaica GRE Grenada GUY Guyana GV Gendered Violence HAI Haiti HBM Health Belief Model HBO Home Box Office Inc. HCC Healthy Caribbean Coalition HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus HMO Home Office HP Health Promotion HR Human Resources HyFlex Hybrid-Flexible ICAI International Center for Academic Integrity ICCPR-1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICT Information, Communication and Technology ID Intellectual Disabilities IEC Information, Education and Communication IFI Incremental Fit Index ILO International Labour Organization IPV Intimate Partner Violence

xxxvi 

ABBREVIATIONS

IQ Intelligence Quotient IT Information Technology JA Jamaica JAM Jamaica JCC Jamaica Council of Churches JEA Jamaica Evangelical Alliance JG Jamaica Gleaner JMD Jamaican Dollars JO Jamaica Observer JUGC Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches LAC Latin America and the Caribbean LILACS Latin America and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas LWC Living Water Community MCO Multi Country Office MH Ministries of Health MHSD Ministry of Health and Social Development MHSS Ministry of Health and Social Security/Services MHW Ministry of Health and Wellness MHWE Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Environment MHWEA Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs MOH Ministry of Health MOHW Ministry of Health and Wellness MoPH Ministry of Public Health N.S. Not Significant NAB National Assistance Board NCD Non-Communicable Disease NCSC National Council for Senior Citizens NDC Neighbourhood Democratic Council NFI Normal Fit Index NHF National Health Fund NHS National Health Service NN Nation News NPI-Acc-RA Acceptance of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions by FaithBased Organisations NPI-CL-VIOL Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention mandates breach Civil Liberties NPI-Res-RA Promotion of Resistance to Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions by Faith-Based Organisations NPIs Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions NSPCC National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children OCR Office of the Children’s Registry

 ABBREVIATIONS 

ODA OECD OECS OLS PAHO PANDEM-2 PATH PBC PBUH PCR PDF PH PHE PHEIC PII PMA PPE PsychINFO PTSD PUBMED QDA Miner QEH RE-AIM REL-dogma RSHE RSMEA RT-PCR RTT S.E SARS SARS-CoV-19 Schizoid PD SDA SDC SDG SEM SES SFSU SGBV SIDS SIPO

xxxvii

Official Development Assistance Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Ordinary Least Squares Pan American Health Organization Pandemic Preparedness And Response Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education Perceived Behavioral Control Peace Be Upon Him Polymerase Chain Reaction Portable Document Format Public Health Public Health Entity Public Health Emergency of International Concern Personally Identifiable Information Paediatric Medical Admission Personal Protective Equipment Psychological Information Database Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Public/Publisher MEDLINE Qualitative Data Analysis Miner Queen Elizabeth Hospital Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance Religious Dogma (non-leader) Relationships, Sex and Health Education Root-Mean-Squared Error Associated Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Round Table Talk Standard Error Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Schizoid Personality Disorder Seventh-Day Adventists Social Development Commission Jamaica Sustainable Developmental Goal Structural Equation Modeling Socioeconomic Status San Francisco State University Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Small Island Developing States Shelter in Place Order

xxxviii 

ABBREVIATIONS

SKN St. Kitts and Nevis SLC St. Lucia SM Social Media SMA Social Media Audit SMEs Small and Micro-Enterprises SN Stabroek News SNms Subjective Norms SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SUR Suriname SVG St. Vincent and the Grenadines TA Thematic Analysis TCI Turks and Caicos Islands TPB Theory of Planned Behavior TT Trinidad and Tobago TTO Trinidad and Tobago TTSE Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UN United Nations UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime USAID United States Agency for International Development USD United States Dollars UWI The University of the West Indies VA Vaccine Attitudes VAC-Acp-NR Vaccine Hesitancy—Non Religious VAC-Acp-RA Vaccine Acceptance and Religious Affiliation VAC-CL-VIOL Civil Liberties VAC-Hes-RA Vaccine Hesitancy and Religious Affiliation VAC-Pro-LDR Pronouncements on Vaccines by Religious Leaders VAW Violence Against Women VAWG Violence Against Women and Girls VI Vaccine Intentions WB World Bank WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization WHS Women’s Health Survey

List of Figures

Fig. 5.1

Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3 Fig. 5.4 Fig. 5.5 Fig. 7.1 Fig. 7.2 Fig. 7.3 Fig. 7.4 Fig. 7.5 Fig. 11.1

Government expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP, 1987–2020. (Sources: Economic & Social Survey of Jamaica, 1987–2008; Central Bank of Barbados 2009, The World Bank) 73 Government expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP, 1987–2019. (Sources: Economic & Social Survey of Jamaica, 1987–2008; Central Bank of Barbados 2009, The World Bank) 74 Official development assistance as a percentage of GDP, 1987–2019. (Sources: Economic & Social Survey of Jamaica, 1987–2008; Central Bank of Barbados 2009, The World Bank) 76 Remittances as a percentage of GDP, 1987–2020. (Sources: Economic & Social Survey of Jamaica, 1987–2008; Central Bank of Barbados 2009, The World Bank) 77 COVID-19 case rates in Barbados and Jamaica from March 2020 to March 2022. (Source: Hambleton, George Alleyne Chronic Research Centre 2022) 81 Proximate Determinants Adapted for Covid-19 Infection 115 Variability and Intensity Dimensions of Spread, First Year 129 Variability and Intensity Dimensions of Spread, First Two Years 130 Variability and Intensity Dimensions of Severity, First Year 131 Variability and Intensity Dimensions of Severity, First Two Years131 Intersection of religion and COVID-19 public health information dissemination 223

xxxix

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List of Figures

Fig. 12.1 Fig. 15.1 Fig. 19.1 Fig. 19.2 Fig. 19.3 Fig. 19.4 Fig. 20.1 Fig. 21.1 Figs. 21.2 and 21.3 Figs. 21.4 and 21.5 Fig. 21.6 Fig. 21.7 Fig. 21.8 Fig. 21.9 Fig. 22.1 Fig. 22.2 Fig. 23.1 Fig. 23.2

Fig. 23.3

Fig. 23.4

Proposed conceptual model. (Note: Asterisk* refers to the Moderating Effect of the Overall Model) Selection of included studies Four major dimensions to flexible teaching and learning. Source: Lundin 1999 Flipped classroom framework. Source: Adopted from Kim et al. 2014 Snippet of Dr. Go Chem Youtube channel Excerpt from the Biological Inorganic Chemistry course site on the Cave Hill E-learning platform Methodological framework Elements of the RE-AIM framework. (Source: Glasgow and Estabrooks (2018)) Comparison of likes for PHEs SM pages Barbados, SVG and CARPHA for 2020 and 2021 respectively Comparison of shares for PHEs SM pages Barbados, SVG and CARPHA for 2020 and 2021 respectively Facebook likes for the years 2020 and 2021 for each PHE Likes and shares per PHE for 2020 depicted by country Likes and shares per PHE for 2021 depicted by country Barbados COVID-19 situation report, March 11, 2021. (Source: Ministry of Health & Wellness, Barbados | Facebook) Conceptual framework Methodological framework Example of a space-time cube (a and b) Z-score population movement patterns across Trinidad and Tobago during the peak SIPO measures are adopted. (Source: Authors’ calculations based on population movement patterns gathered by Facebook Data for Good) (a and b) Z-score population movement patterns across Trinidad and Tobago during the reopening phase of the economy. (Source: Authors’ calculations based on population movement patterns gathered by Facebook Data for Good) (a–d) Results of event study of policies of interest during the phased implementation of lockdowns. Panel A: the closure of beaches and recreational sites; B: the closure of restaurants; C: the closure of businesses (Phase 1); and D: the closure of businesses (Phase 2). Grey areas highlight the 95% confidence intervals

237 309 417 422 423 424 446 472 478 479 480 480 481 482 497 498 520

522

523

524

  List of Figures 

Fig. 23.5

Fig. 23.6a

Fig. 23.6b

Fig. 23.7 Fig. 23.8

Fig. 23.9

(a–f) Results of event study of policies of interest during the phased reopening of the economy. Panel A: the reopening of restaurants; B: the reopening of manufacturing; C: the reopening of retail outlets (Phase 1); D: the reopening of public spaces (Phase 1); E: the reopening of places of worship; and F: the reopening of public spaces (Phase 2). Grey areas highlight the 95% confidence intervals Google trends before and after the implementation of major lockdowns for searches related to mental health and negative coping (event study—did). The vertical axis shows the results of events study difference-in-difference models which provide estimates of differences in search patterns for keywords during the week k (both before and after the implementation of major lockdowns) in 2020 relative to the same period in 2019. The models include controls for the country, year, week, and day of week fixed effects as well as a lagged number of new infections. Population weights are applied, and standard errors are clustered at the day level Google trends before and after the implementation of major lockdowns for searches related to positive and religious coping strategies (event study—did). The vertical axis shows the results of events study difference-in-­difference models which provide estimates of differences in search patterns for keywords during the week k (both before and after the implementation of major lockdowns) in 2020 relative to the same period in 2019. The models include controls for the country, year, week, and day of week fixed effects as well as a lagged number of new infections. Population weights are applied, and standard errors are clustered at the day level Estimation window—timeline for study Trends in average abnormal returns (AABR) and cumulative average abnormal returns (CAABR) in the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE). (Note: The data also shows key announcement dates over the survey period) Trends in CAABR at a sectoral level among stocks in the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) 30 days after WHO announcement

xli

525

529

530 532

534 535

List of Tables

Table 7.1 Table 7.2

Summary Demographics by Country, 2021 116 Classifications of Countries by Age Structure and Health Resilience, 2021 118 Table 7.3 Cumulative COVID-19 cases per 1000 population according to country and selected dates 121 Table 7.4 Growth Factor Representing Period Increase in Cumulative Covid-19 Cases per 1000 Population According to Country—Selected Periods 122 Table 7.5 Cumulative COVID-19 deaths per 1000 cases according to country and selected dates 123 Table 7.6 Growth Factor Representing Period Increase in Cumulative Covid-19 Deaths per 1000 Cases According to Country— Selected Periods 124 Table 7.7 Classification of Countries by Measure of Skewness for Spread and Severity According to Period 125 Table 7.8 Average Weekly Distribution of Spread and Severity According to Period 126 Table 7.9 Impact on Vulnerability to Spread and Severity Due to Age Structure and Health Resilience 133 Table 9.1 Incidence of COVID-19 167 Table 11.1 Hybrid coding dictionary for examining the impact of FBOs on COVID-19 information dissemination and acceptance of public health prevention measures 208 Table 11.2 Key macro-setting characteristics of the focus countries and media sources 211 Table 11.3 Number of news articles found in online media sources by country212 xliii

xliv 

List of Tables

Table 12.1 Means, standard deviations, alphas and correlations for all summed variables 241 Table 12.2 Structural model paths, estimates and significance 242 Table 15.1 Related terms for categories of ACEs 306 Table 15.2 EBSCOhost search terms and limits 307 Table 15.3 Characteristics of included studies 310 Table 15.4 Results of study quality appraisal—CASP 321 Table 17.1 Selected Caribbean countries according to the stage of demographic transition 373 Table 18.1 Outline of actions taken by education stakeholders in response to COVID-19 406 Table 19.1 List of ‘FLIPPED’ chemistry courses 421 Table 19.2 Demographics of the participants 425 Table 19.3 Summary of the comparison of the hyflex model and the flipped classroom approach 434 Table 20.1 Reliability statistics for the online survey 448 Table 20.2 Demographic features of 332 students 449 Table 20.3 Students’ reporting of their computer setup and access to the Internet 449 Table 20.4 Students’ opinions of their experiences with the e-proctored practice exam 450 Table 20.5 Students’ opinions of their experiences with the final online e-proctored exam 451 Table 20.6 Results of students who agreed or strongly agreed with statements in each category during their e-proctored exams 453 Table 20.7 Categorisation of 190 comments from the 307 responses with using the e-proctoring software during their final online e-proctored exams 454 Table 20.8 Results of students who agreed or strongly agreed with statements on academic integrity 457 Table 20.9 Students’ perception of academic integrity by age range 457 Table 21.1 SM users across the CARICOM between 2019 and 2021 467 Table 21.2 SM platforms utilised for communication by PHEs in the Caribbean471 Table 21.3 Facebook engagement of COVID-19-related posts across PHEs in 2020 and 2021 474 Table 21.4 Potential reach of COVID-19 messaging via a PHEs Facebook476 Table 21.5 Top three impact posts with good engagement, MHSS, GRENADA485 Table 21.6 Top three impact posts with good engagement, MHW, JAMAICA486

  List of Tables 

Table 21.7 Table 21.8 Table 22.1 Table 22.2 Table 22.3

Top three impact posts with good engagement, HCC Top three impact posts with good engagement, CARPHA Reliability statistics for the online survey Demographic features of online instructors Results of T-tests on the level of instructors’ preparedness for ERT and variables for gender and previous training Table 22.4 Results of ANOVA on the level of instructors’ preparedness for ERT and variables for age range, years of experience, and subject area taught Table 22.5 Means and standard deviations for the three sub-categories

xlv 487 488 499 502 502 503 504

PART I

COVID-19 and Caribbean Society

CHAPTER 1

Introduction Wendy C. Grenade, Halimah A. F. DeShong , Sherma Roberts , and Dwayne Devonish

Historically, Caribbean countries have had to navigate multiple crises given that the region’s landscape has been shaped by an interplay of vulnerability and resilience and by the convergence of external and internal forces. This confluence of factors has created a number of possibilities and contradictions for the predominantly small island developing states (SIDS) in the Caribbean, which has tested our collective resolve through time. It is against this background and that of intersecting challenges of pre-­existing socio-economic precarity, the existential threat of the climate crisis, and the various shocks emanating from the global political economy, that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic must be considered. With economies

W. C. Grenade (*) Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, St. George’s University, True Blue, Grenada e-mail: [email protected] H. A. F. DeShong Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. Roberts et al. (eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31119-2_1

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characterised as small, open, and highly vulnerable to external shocks— including the ever-present threat of natural disasters—these shifts have been seismic. In the Caribbean, the ripple effects of the crisis have reverberated throughout every sector. The broader socio-economic impacts were compounded as COVID-19 unmasked democratic deficits; disrupted access to education; exposed and deepened social inequalities; and brought to the fore psycho-social and mental health challenges for diverse demographic groups. There are still concerns about state overreach and the violation of civil rights and liberties, the escalation of gendered violence, a marked increase in women’s unpaid care work, drug abuse, child abuse, and suicide. There are also less documented stories of resilience among Caribbean people where entrepreneurial opportunities have been explored and exploited. We therefore suggest that the contemporary moment is the most defining period in modern history, requiring incisive intellectual scrutiny. This is where the current volume attempts to make a contribution. This book provides a comprehensive, multi-, and interdisciplinary assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Caribbean as the site of enquiry. The Caribbean here is conceptualised in a broad sense to include but transcend the Island Chain, incorporating the Caribbean Basin, the ethno-historic zone in Central and South America, and transnational diasporic communities (Girvan 2000). A primary focus of the edited volume is to interrogate COVID-19 as a multi-dimensional, inter-mestic phenomenon. This edited collection seeks to unearth, explore, analyse, and document the varied experiences, impacts of, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic within the Caribbean regional space, through the prisms of diverse writers and scholars within and across multiple disciplines and vocations. For instance, we know that in every other region of the world, women and girls were more acutely affected by the pandemic and that gender, race, class, and geographic inequalities between and among women and men have deepened. This situation is worse for black and indigenous women, women within religious minorities, women under the threat of gendered violence, and women who were far more likely to S. Roberts School for Graduate Studies and Research, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados e-mail: [email protected] D. Devonish Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados e-mail: [email protected]

1 INTRODUCTION 

5

be in positions of precarious employment prior to the pandemic. Among the most visible effects of the pandemic in the Caribbean were increased food insecurity; devastation of our tourism-based economies and the wider business sector; exacerbation of the digital divide in the educational sector; a sharp rise in unemployment and shifts in the care economy; escalation of state-led containment measures; and the resultant mental health strain. Despite these challenges, the exigencies of our times have also served to reinvigorate consciousness and actions necessary to create just societies, economies, and polities. For example, Landis (2021) remarks on a deepening regionalism that emerges from the necessary functional cooperation among the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states to confront the pandemic systematically and scientifically in what are essentially small open economies with significantly constrained health systems. Landis (2021, 72) argues that ‘the practice and resilience gained from dealing with prior viral epidemics and annual weather-related disasters’ is one of several bases for the strengthened regionalism demonstrated in the past two years. The edited volume is therefore an emic, etic, and forward-looking assessment of how countries within the region continue to navigate the far-reaching consequences of living through a pandemic, while at the same time reimagining just futures. In so doing the collection situates the analysis of the Caribbean experience along a number of ‘glocal’ developments, with the rapid shifts occasioned by intersecting health, climate, socio-­ economic, political, and psycho-social crises. Why this book and why now? This edited collection is unique for several interrelated reasons. One, the dearth in the literature on COVID-19 and the Caribbean warrants a need to generate knowledge from Caribbean perspectives. A significant body of work has already emerged on COVID-19 in the Global North (Schwab and Malleret 2020; Mercola and Cummins 2021) but little is still known about the Caribbean environments, lives, and livelihoods under siege by this pandemic. Another feature of this book is that it intends to contribute to the discourse on vulnerability, resilience, and possibilities in small developing states and regions and their capacity to confront and adapt to crises. Third, this volume brings together in one place critical analyses of COVID-19 and the Caribbean to contribute to scholarly discourse and inform praxis as the world grapples with this unprecedented multi-dimensional crisis. The editors and contributors are all Caribbeanists whose insights are intended to collectively enrich the volume. The broad definition of the Caribbean adopted in this collection allows for comparative analyses within a very diverse geographic space, while at the same time placing the Caribbean experience and Caribbeanist scholars/researchers/activists/policymakers

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in conversation with perspectives and counterparts from other regions in the world. Fourth, much of the early scholarly work on COVID-19 and the Caribbean can be found in peer-reviewed journals. For instance, utilising Public Health perspectives, Murphy et al. (2020) document the variety of government measures introduced across the Caribbean and explore their impact on aspects of outbreak control. Similarly, Hambleton et al. (2020) juxtapose COVID-19 with extreme weather events in the Caribbean and tease out lessons learnt. From International Relations perspectives, Byron et  al. (2021) examine multilateral and regional policy responses and argue that the present scenario offers opportunities to deepen functional cooperation and build resilience within the Caribbean. However, the edited volume, although building on such works, seeks to contribute to the discourse on COVID-19 and the Caribbean in a more comprehensive manner, as it analyses cross-cutting themes, probes the intersections of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and re-imagines new pathways for the Caribbean ‘post’ COVID-19. As a scholarly text, the book provides useful policy prescriptions with new pathways for the Caribbean as it seeks to move forward. In essence, this text connects theory and practice to bridge the divides among the academy, policy, and industry. This is a most vital contribution of the edited collection. This edited work therefore seeks to fill a research gap through an analytical treatment of COVID-19 and the Caribbean experience, using various theoretical, conceptual, and methodological frameworks and empirical applications grounded in a wide cross-section of disciplines. Against this backdrop, this volume seeks to address three broad questions: 1. What were ‘the Caribbean experiences’ with and within the COVID-19 pandemic? 2. What were the general reactions and responses to the pandemic and its effects on various dimensions of these Caribbean experiences? 3. What werer the key lessons learnt and principal takeaways emanating from our experiences with and treatment to the pandemic, and what viable alternatives, in navigating the pandemic should be considered in our rebound and recovery efforts? In addressing the aforementioned questions and more, the collection leverages both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses in the documentation of these experiences, reactions/responses, lessons learnt, and best practices in manoeuvring through the complex crises occasioned by

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the pandemic. In short, the collection mobilises critical perspectives brought to bear on research produced within and beyond the boundaries and boundedness of conventional academic disciplinary divides, in response to the multi-dimensional crises of our time. The culmination of this collection offers a re-imagining of our Caribbean contemporary futures in the hope of finding home-grown solutions, avenues, and possibilities. Volume II of this edited collection is divided into four parts, consisting of 23 chapters, which weave together 4 broad thematic strands: ‘COVID-19 and Caribbean Society’; ‘COVID-19 Religion and Rights’; ‘Psycho-social Impacts of COVID-19’; and ‘Education, Innovation, and Technology’. Collectively, the chapters which constitute Volume II embody the ethos of working in inter- and multidisciplinary context to delineate the precise ways in which the pandemic has transformed lives and livelihoods in the region. Authors working within and across the human, social, physical, and life sciences consider the myriad effects of the health crisis in the region, interrogating these experiences from the granular to macro level. Following is an outline of the organisation of this second volume. When taken together, chapters one to eight in Part I of this volume utilise multidisciplinary lenses to expose fault lines in Caribbean societies, which are deeply rooted in the region’s history. The first two chapters of the volume interrogate gendered violence: the first with both pan-­ Caribbean references and analysis from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the second with a specific focus on Jamaica. The interstices of gendered violence and COVID-19 are also featured later in this part of Volume II in a chapter by scholars who make connections to other manifestations of violence within economically disadvantaged communities in Jamaica. This is followed by chapters which provide an analysis of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on urban low-income communities in Guyana and social capital in the context of Barbados and Jamaica. The first part of this second volume ends with analyses of the impact of COVID-19 on the PanCaribbean. The disciplinary diversity and range of analytical approaches across these volumes are made manifest with the final two chapters in this section. Whereas the penultimate chapter is an interrogation of vulnerability across 19 Caribbean countries within the context of the pandemic, the final chapter represents a thoughtful literary exploration of Olive Senior’s Pandemic Poetry: First Wave. Indeed, Volume II of the book continues the work of valuing multi- and interdisciplinary analyses as providing more expansive ways in which to examine and (re)imagine the Caribbean experience with a contemporary global health crisis.

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Globally, COVID-19 brought to the fore tensions between rights and order. Consisting of three chapters—nine to eleven—Part II of this volume locates the conversation around questions of religion and rights. The first chapter provides an incisive scholarly treatment of human rights and Caribbean prisons drawing on experiences from Barbados, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. This is followed by a critical examination of COVID-19 and social lives of churches in Barbados, and the role of faith-­ based organisations in shaping Caribbean responses to COVID-19 public health measures with cases from Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, and Jamaica. The multi-country focus lends itself to comparative analyses which add richness to the volume. A common thread running through this part of the volume is the contradictions between individual rights, freedom, and the imperatives of public health measures in the context of the severity of the pandemic. Throughout the world, the psycho-social impacts of COVID-19 have been immense. In Part III of this volume, chapters twelve to seventeen— the contributors use multidisciplinary perspectives to explore various dimensions of COVID-19 on Caribbean societies. Collectively, the chapters in this part of Volume II explore the interconnected psychological and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic across age and gender, with particular emphases on the experiences of children, women, and parents. The chapter which opens this part of the collection draws on the theory of Planned Behaviour Model to predict vaccine intentions and the roles of conspiracy ideation and risk perception with emphasis on Barbados. This is followed by an analysis of the psychological impact of COVID-19 on women in the informal sector in Barbados, and the impact of COVID-19 on the work-life balance of women in Barbados. This part of the volume also analyses the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and COVID-19 in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. It then provides a pan-­ Caribbean overview of the psycho-social and economic impact of COVID-19 on children and their parents. The final chapter raises a critical question: ‘Are Caribbean COVID-19 policies ageist?’ To interrogate that question, the authors analyse policies from Barbados, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education globally. As UNICEF confirms, Latin America and the Caribbean account for almost 60 per cent of all children who missed an entire school year due to COVID-19 lockdowns across the world (UNICEF 2021). Yet, despite severe disruptions, the pandemic provided innovative opportunities to optimise the use of

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technology to enhance the teaching and learning experience. The final part of the volume, which consists of seven chapters—eighteen to twenty-­ three—centres around education, innovation, and technology. The experiences of shifts in the delivery of teaching and learning among countries in the sub-regional grouping of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are the focus of the first chapter. Here, the authors explore the opportunities for greater use of information and communication technologies for education and school and the extent to which the process inhered the principles of equity and inclusion. In a similar vein, three of the chapters in this final part of the current volume utilise cases from Barbados to examine various implications of COVID-19 for the education sector. Authors’ emphases surround navigating the teaching and learning environment; the maintenance of academic integrity using e-proctoring software; and pivoting towards emergency remote teaching. The volume also includes analyses of social media as a communication tool used by Caribbean public health entities during the pandemic, as well as COVID-19 and big data research. This final chapter examines the implications of the use of this kind of data for responding during extreme events, including health, economic, and climate crises, with specific emphases on implications for and applications to a Caribbean context. By centring education, innovation, and technology the contributors have thrown light on new pathways for the Caribbean in a post-COVID-19 world.

References Byron, Jessica, Jacqueline Laguardia Martinez, Annita Montoute, and Keron Niles. 2021. Impacts of COVID-19  in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 110 (1): 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2021.1875694. Girvan, Norman. 2000. Creating and Recreating the Caribbean. In Contending with Destiny: The Caribbean in the 21st Century, ed. Kenneth Hall and Dennis Benn, 31–36. Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers. Hambleton, Ian R., Selvin M. Jeyaseelan, and M.M. Murphy. 2020. COVID-19 in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States: Lessons Learnt from Extreme Weather Events. Lancet Global Health 8 (9): e1114–e1115. https://doi. org/10.1016/S2214-­109X(20)30291-­6. Landis, R. Clive. 2021. Coronavirus and CARICOM The benefit of a Regional University in a Coherent Pandemic Response. In COVID in the Islands: A Comparative Perspective on the Caribbean and the Pacific, ed. Yonique Campbell and John Connell, 71–91. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Mercola, Joseph, and Ronnie Cummins. 2021. The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal. Vermont and London: Chelsea Green Publishing. Murphy, M.M., S.M.  Jeyaseelan, C.  Howitt, N.  Greaves, H.  Harewood, K.R.  Quimby, N.  Sobers, R.C.  Landis, K.D.  Rocke, and I.R.  Hambleton. 2020. COVID-19 Containment in the Caribbean: The Experience of Small Island Developing States. Research in Globalization 2: 100019. Schwab, Klaus, and Thierry Malleret. 2020. COVID-19: The Great Reset. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum. UNICEF. 2021. Latin America and the Caribbean Home to 3 out of 5 Children who Lost an Entire School Year Worldwide. Panama, March 3. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/press-­releases/latin-­ america-­a nd-­c aribbean-­i s-­h ome-­o f-­3 -­o ut-­5 -­c hildren-­w ho-­l ost-­a n-­e ntire-­ school-­year-­in-­the-­world.

CHAPTER 2

In the ‘Shadow’ of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Naming Gendered Violence in the Era of a Global Health Crisis Halimah A. F. DeShong

On 11 March 2020, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the spread of COVID-19 a global pandemic. With this declaration came a number of national, regional and global efforts to address the possible health and socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 and the urgent need to curb its spread. Recommendations to reduce community transmission featured isolation of suspected cases, social distancing and lockdowns. These measures were amplified in many countries with rapid increases of cases and as health systems became overloaded (Marques et  al. 2020). A key concern for women and feminist activists in the Caribbean and across the globe was the myriad ways in which COVID-19 amplified already existing gendered inequalities. In the Caribbean (as was the case in several other regions of

H. A. F. DeShong (*) Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. Roberts et al. (eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31119-2_2

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the world), it worsened the precarity of work for women in the informal economy and in the services-oriented jobs in retail and in tourism, while also substantially increasing women’s involvement in unpaid labour and care activities (Adey et al. 2021). In fact, Byron et al. (2021, 101) connected the sharp decline in socio-economic realities of Commonwealth Caribbean countries to the region’s “high dependence on tourism and remittances, economic openness and limited resources”. In 2021, UNICEF estimated a 27% loss of formal sector employment in the Eastern Caribbean (Byron et  al. 2021). The erosion of jobs and income across gender, coupled with containment measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, resulted in increased strain to families, communities and societies at large. The interstices of gendered violence and the COVID-19 pandemic are captured by Mittal and Singh (2020), who note that the quarantine paradox (along with other mitigation measures) includes a surge in violence against women and other gendered harms. Gendered violence is a felt experience. Materially visible on the one hand and strategically obscure on the other, confronting and eliminating gendered violence is fraught with much contradiction. For example, while the physically injurious consequences of gendered violence are readily noticeable, the context, structures, social relations and ideologies which produce these harms often go unnoticed, are taken-for-granted and rendered natural and normal. Feminist preoccupation with the politics of naming gendered violence stem from an appreciation of just how much is at stake when we fail to comprehensively delineate the complex ways in which this violence is produced and how it endures. As countries across the world began to implement a range of COVID-19 mitigation measures, women organising against gendered violence cautioned governments on the need to ensure that such measures did not further expose women and children to a range of gendered harms. Feminist activists and other women civil society members, development practitioners, representatives of World Health Organization, among others, urged governments to include, as essential services, psycho-social support for women and children who were at increased risk of experiencing gendered violences (Dlamini 2021; Nabukeera 2021). For example, similar concerns were expressed during a live televised panel discussion on 11 June 2020 on Barbados’ Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation TV 8 which

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featured feminist and women’s rights activist and researchers, as well as development practitioners.1 Prior to the pandemic, where data were available, prevalence rates for gendered violence against women in the Caribbean were higher than the global average. Pre-pandemic lifetime prevalence rates for intimate partner violence in Guyana stood at 55%, 48% in Suriname, 44% in Trinidad and Tobago and 39% in Grenada and Jamaica (UN Women MCO Caribbean and CDB 2020). All of these countries have recorded lifetime prevalence rates of intimate partner violence that are higher than the global average of one in three women. In addition, significantly more women tend to fear being sexually assaulted when compared to men (30% women compared to 11% men) (UNDP 2012). At the onset of the pandemic in the Caribbean, with a number of mitigation measures established—including lockdowns and school closures— countries began to record exponential increases in reports of various manifestations of gendered violence. • Barbados observed a 38% increase in reports of domestic violence during state sanctioned lockdowns; many were cases of intimate partner violence (IPV). • Trinidad and Tobago recorded 119% increase in call volume to the National Domestic Violence Hotline for the period January to November 2020. • The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service observed a 78% year-on-­ year increase in domestic violence reports between March and August 2020. In fact, in May, June and July of 2020 upsurges of 113%, 149%, and 132% respectively were recorded in Trinidad and Tobago. • In the first quarter of 2020 in Anguilla there was a 125% increase in reports of domestic violence.

1  The IMPACT Justice Project sponsored this panel discussion on Violence Against Women and Girls During COVID-19, which was featured on Barbados’ Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation TV 8. It was carried at 9 PM on 11 June 2020. Featured speakers included: High Commissioner of Canada to Barbados, H.E. Marie Legault; Director of the IMPACT Justice Project, Professor Velma Newton; President of the National Organisation for Women, Dr Marsha Hinds; Lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit of The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Dr Tonya Haynes; and Gender Advocate Cecelia Babb.

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• An IDB report found that in all countries surveyed there was an increase by at least 10% in reports of domestic violence, with Suriname experiencing a 23% rise. (UN Women 2020) It goes without saying that such sharp increases in reports of gendered violence require urgent action. This provides a partial basis for understanding how the notion of gendered violence as a “shadow pandemic” emerged as a discursive strategy for signalling the rapid increase of violence against women and girls and also how, as a rhetorical device, it has animated local, regional and global discourses on the nature and context of such violence in a global health crisis. By April 2020, the then Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of the Women (UN Women) was among the first to refer to the escalation of violence against women and girls as ‘the shadow pandemic’ (UN Women 2020). This reference has become quite commonplace among activist, scholars and practitioners, including Caribbean doers/thinkers. In this chapter, I probe the political expediency of applying this pandemic/medical metaphor to call attention to the escalation of gendered violence; a move intended to capture the pervasiveness and severity of such violence in an era of an unprecedented global health crisis. On the one hand, framing the coterminous rise in gendered violence, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a ‘shadow pandemic’ was intended to have policymakers devote keen attention and resources to addressing these gendered harms as part of efforts to confront the effects of the health crisis. On the other hand, while it was important for policymakers to draw attention to and allocate resources to mitigate against gendered violence, deploying this medical metaphor potentially elides the necessary analysis of power, privilege and inequality that produce these harms. This naming also misses the increased reports of gendered violence which have historically accompanied extreme climate events, periods of economic shocks, armed conflict and other major socio-political and socio-economic shifts in the Caribbean and other regions of the world. Furthermore, as Brenda Madumise-Pajibo (2020) has argued, the term ‘shadow pandemic’ does not sufficiently account for the existence of troubling levels of gendered violence prior to the arrival of the COVID-19 crisis. With this context in mind, in this chapter, I begin by defining and reflecting on the politics of naming gendered violence before proceeding

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to a fuller reflection on naming gendered violence as ‘shadow pandemic’. Following this discussion, reference is made to data from interviews with 11 Vincentian service providers (three men and eight women) who worked with various state and non-state entities during the explosive volcanic eruptions and as part of the country’s COVID-19 response. The insights from these interviews are discussed as indicative of how one Caribbean state experienced gendered violence in a context of multiple and intersecting crises and the understandings to be gleaned for addressing these harms. Along with these qualitative interviews, both scholarly and popular writings which name gendered violence as a ‘shadow pandemic’ are referenced in this chapter. These are read against and in dialogue with feminist and other critical approaches to naming gendered violence.

The Politics of Naming Gendered Violence Gendered violence occurs in situations where gender and sexuality intersect and are socially produced in particular times, spaces and cultural contexts. In other words, gender and sexuality structure the contexts within which such violence persists. Furthermore, how gender produces, structures and maintains violence against women and girls is often overlooked in research and action to confront these harms. In their theorising of ‘gender’, Eudine Barriteau (1998) and Xhercis Mendez (2015) provide critical insights for explaining the violence to which women and girls are disproportionately exposed. Barriteau (1998) theorises gender as complex relations of power and domination through which women and men are created, maintained and allocated resources. This also includes how persons who do not conform to normative expressions of gender and sexuality are interpolated within gender systems. In her gender systems theory, Barriteau (1998) reminds us that these unequal relations of power are often masked as normal and natural in ways that maintain inequalities. For Mendez (2015), in societies with histories of settler colonialism, gender never travels away from race. In other words, Caribbean gender systems and relations are overdetermined by race. This approach is critical to the work of naming, framing and responding to gendered violence in the region. In more than a decade of research on gendered violence, particularly on violence against women in intimate heterosexual relationships, I have observed that persons affected by, persons who perpetrate and persons working to remediate the effects of violence explain these harms in ways

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that inhere the very dangerous gendered assumptions which produce such violence in the first place. Whether in media, in interviews with women and men about men’s violence against women in intimate relationships or in interviews with state officials, rationalisations, excuses and explanations of gendered violence fall back on colonialist binary scripts of gender and sexuality (DeShong 2018). For many decades, feminists have demonstrated how gendered violence remains the most serious manifestation of enduring gendered inequality. At the level of global, regional and national policy response, the politics of naming gendered violence calls into question what is and is not ‘violent’ (Frazer and Hutchings 2020). In this paper, I am not so concerned with specific terms used for organising gendered violence into categories such as ‘domestic’, ‘sexual’, ‘intimate partner’ and so on. There is indeed a need to problematise this tendency to typologise violence into these discrete categories. For example, in a 2020 article, Elizabeth Frazer and Kimberley Hutchings explored the political implications of applying terms like violence against women and girls (VAWG) and sexual and gender-­ based violence (SGBV) in ways that homogenise the categories ‘women and girls’ and conflate them with ‘gender’. They suggest that “the analyses of structural, symbolic and epistemic violences that harm and traumatise persons based on their sexual and gender identities, and which enact and enforce the two sex two gender hierarchy capture both how violence is done and its effects” (Frazer and Hutchings 2020, 201). Tonya Haynes and I have also argued for a more expansive framing of gendered violence that takes account of how gender and sexuality structure the experiences of women (including transwomen) and other persons who do not conform to normative expressions of gender and sexuality, in ways that create disproportionately violent outcomes in their lives (Haynes and DeShong 2017). These ways of framing gendered violence take account of how the structural and symbolic violence of gender, sexuality, race and class reach into the everyday experiences of women, girls and gender nonconforming persons to produce both physical and non-physical harms. In this chapter, I am more concerned with how Caribbean feminists have always connected specific manifestations of gendered violence to broader mechanisms of power and inequalities. For example, Andaiye (2020b) demonstrates how violence against Afro-Guyanese working-class women in intimate relationships is maintained and amplified in a context of enduring experiences of economic precarity, global capitalism and through various mechanisms and practices of the state which serve to

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maintain the status quo in terms of the uneven distribution of resources. D. Alyssa Trotz (2004, 6) also argues that “if women’s positioning as secondary citizens renders them susceptible to expressions of violence—economic, domestic, political—we also need to think about the multiple ways in which women are located by and experience different forms of violence”. Citing gendered violence as a product of the operation of gender, race, class and sexuality, as maintained within Caribbean political economy and with connections to historical and contemporary mechanisms of the state, provides an important point of departure as I attempt to situate this most recent framing of gendered violence as “shadow pandemic”.

Gendered Violence as ‘Shadow Pandemic’ On 6 April 2020, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the then Executive Director of UN Women, issued a statement on behalf of her organisation, titled “Violence Against Women and Girls: The Shadow Pandemic” in which she registered concern that as countries enact lockdowns and other measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 “we see a shadow pandemic emerge”. Similarly, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterras, called for a global ceasefire and for peace in homes and would go on to deliver several statements in which he too deployed the medical metaphor to signal the exponential increase in gendered violence globally. The central logic guiding the deployment of the term ‘Shadow Pandemic’ is the escalation of gendered violence with the onset of the pandemic. However, about a month after Mlambo-Ngcuka used the term “shadow pandemic”, Brenda Madumise-Pajibo (2020) of the WISE Collective (an advocacy group for African Women) remarked in an online opinion piece that notwithstanding the major socio-economic effects of the pandemic, to refer to gendered violence as “shadow” is to miss the more than 240 million women and girls to have been affected. Madumise-Pajibo (2020) would go on to define gendered violence as a pandemic which predated the arrival of the global COVID-19 crisis. Like many of the authors of academic articles, reports and editorials, Madumise-Pajibo’s makes passing reference to gendered violence as pandemic to signal its pervasiveness, but there is a clear sense that what is being confronted has its root in unequal relations of gender that are historically produced, socially sanctioned and politically maintained. It is no surprise then that much of the academic papers and reports which name the rise in gendered violence as a ‘shadow pandemic’ did so to signal the

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urgent need for the state to equally invest in services to prevent and remediate this violence alongside efforts to respond to COVID-19. This tension is observable in Parry’s and Gordon’s (2021) academic paper on the experience of South African Women in which they both name the rising levels of violence against South African women as follows: The shadow pandemic needs to be brought to light. It is of the utmost importance that we address IPV, not only as the shadow pandemic of increasing violence against women during COVID-19, but as the overwhelming and devastating pandemic it is for the women in South African society, day after day, hour after hour. It would be a travesty to have the scourge of IPV and gender-based violence in South Africa, that is all too well known to the country’s powers that be, become a pandemic in the shadow of COVID-19. This so-called shadow pandemic of gender-based violence needs to be treated with the same determination and severity as seen in the practices used against the contagion COVID-19.

Previously, the decision to apply the pandemic metaphor to define rising levels of violence against women is obvious. While countries struggled to contain the spread of the virus, far too little attention was assigned to how the shifting socio-economic circumstances and new restrictions to curb the spread were bound to exacerbate violence against women and girls. In fact, the larger point made by Parry and Gordon (2021) is that predating the COVID-19 pandemic, insufficient attention was assigned to addressing gendered violence that occurred with an alarming frequency and with serious health and psycho-social consequences for women and girls, as well as other socio-economic consequences for societies at large. In the Caribbean more specifically, an equally compelling case is made for urgent action to simultaneously confront gendered violence and its escalation within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a February 2021 online article Phoebe Sheppard began her piece with the headline from a paper from the Latin American and Caribbean region which read “Urgent action needed to end the pandemic of femicide”. Sheppard would go on to argue that: Although eradicating the shadow pandemic of GBV and femicide will not stop the spread of COVID-19, it cannot be denied that we are currently facing a femicide crisis with around 50,000 women a year being murdered. GBV and femicide cannot continue to be relegated and forgotten simply due to the prioritisation of ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Femicide is a

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pandemic in itself and it is about time that it was treated as one. The effect of COVID-19 restrictions on the increased vulnerability of women and the resulting levels of gendered violence must be recognised if women’s lives are to be saved.

What is clear is that feminist thinkers, in an effort to make visible the egregious consequences of gendered violence in the lives of women, girls and gender nonconforming persons, as well as the grossly inadequate response by the state, employ the pandemic metaphor with a view of eliciting more decisive and effective response by governments. In making the case, Shepperd would go on the share statistics on the frequency with which women are killed and injured in situations of intimate partner and other forms of sexual violence to show just how pervasive gendered violence remains. The frustration of feminists, women’s rights activists and, more importantly, those directly affected, is related to an apparent absence of political will by the state to prioritise the well-being of women and girls in the face of rising levels of gendered violence. In this context, framing gendered violence either as a pre-existing pandemic or as ‘shadow pandemic’ can be understood as a discursive strategy intended to elicit a more meaningful response at the level of the state. In the Caribbean, reports emerged between 2020 and 2021 which highlight both the continuities and shifts to have occurred in the experience of gendered violence (UNFPA 2020; UN Women 2020). Also, emerging in this period were a series of policy briefs which situate gender inequality and gendered violence more specifically, as manifesting in particular ways as a consequence of intersecting health, climate and economic crises. These were produced as part of the Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) project. A total of seven country reports were produced on these intersecting concerns in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (UN Women 2020). A general observation across these country reports was the differential gendered effects of climate change, COVID-19 and natural hazards on women and men. For example, women in agriculture and fisheries experience sharper declines in earnings, when compared to men in periods of natural disasters. Women also experience increased burdens of care when displaced as a result of natural hazards and as a consequence of the health

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crisis. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for example, the majority of persons accessing shelters as a result of the 2021 explosive volcanic eruptions were women and children.2 In 2010, we learned of egregious and high levels of sexual violence experienced by women and girls displaced in Haiti as a result of the earthquakes. All seven countries for which EnGenDER reports were prepared in the Caribbean recorded increased levels of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls who experience displacement in the face of hurricanes, floods, droughts, the vector-borne diseases that accompany increased rainfall, coastal erosion and the added threat posed by the pandemic. The material effects of the existential crisis of climate change are indeed gendered; so too are the complications posed by the health crisis. Women tend to be out of formal paid work for longer periods during these extreme events, further affecting their ability to provide for families, while also increasing their risk of experiencing gendered violence. Economic recovery for women in the fisheries and agricultural sectors tends to be longer when compared to men, given pre-existing gender inequalities in these sectors. It thus becomes critical to account for these complications in naming and conceptualising gendered violence as societies grapple with multiple and intersecting major events. It is also critical to analyse how this violence operates at a granular level, its differential and shared effects on diverse women, girls and gender nonconforming persons, and how these multiple experiences are connected to broader patterns of power in our social and political systems. While the pandemic metaphor might in fact be useful to raise public awareness and understanding of just how widespread gendered violence remains, it is conceptually limited in its ability to delineate the complexity of this violence, as well as its connection to broader systems of power and domination. I point to four main issues which arise when framing the escalation of gendered violence in the Caribbean (and elsewhere) as ‘shadow pandemic’. 1. Prevalence surveys conducted in the Caribbean and other regions of the world point to troubling levels of sexual and intimate partner violence prior to the onset of the pandemic. With Caribbean coun2  On 27 December 2020, the La Soufriere Volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines became active. A series of effusive volcanic eruptions continued until April 2021. The volcano transitioned to explosive eruptions on 09 April 2021 which continued episodically until 22 April 2021.

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tries surveyed all exceeding the global average of one in three, there is need to point to the continuities of violence and to specifically delineate its roots and tributaries. 2. The pandemic metaphor has the unintended effect of shifting focus away from the structural, institutional, historical, ideological and interpersonal arrangements which produce violence. Whose responsibility is it really if violence is named as contagion? Is it simply a question for public health? A keen observation in this regard is that even though sections of reports, titles of op-eds and academic papers deploy the term, there is much consideration given to how gendered violence unfolds in far more complex ways. However, this occurs mostly in publications of agencies, practitioners, activist and researchers with a history of work on gendered violence. 3. How do we account for escalation of violence in times of crises? Consider the reports of egregious forms of sexual violence against women and girls in Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake (Campbell et  al. 2016); gendered violence in armed conflict; the escalation of domestic violence with the 1980s structural adjustment programmes in the Caribbean (Pitt 2017); the increased gendered violence in times of natural disasters in the region (Roure 2019); and now increased violence during a global health crisis and its manifestation in the region. 4. ‘Shadow pandemic’ as a signifier has also been used to define the rise in other social phenomena that accompany the pandemic. For example, Eisma and Boelen (2023) define the increase in prolonged grief disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘shadow pandemic’. As a strategy for naming and framing gendered violence in times of a health crisis, it appears to be a politically expedient move to deploy the pandemic metaphor to call for action, especially in a context of reports of escalating levels of these harms in homes and in communities. This way of framing VAWG, while calling attention to increasing levels of harms faced by women, girls and persons who do not conform to normative expressions and gender and sexuality, also runs the risk of being reductionist. On the surface, there is a clear evocative effect of likening the rise in violence to the rapid spread of a disease in much the same way COVID-19 moved from country to country, region to region. However, gendered violence is not a disease. To invoke the pandemic/medical metaphor to explain the escalation of gendered violence is to miss the potent analysis of power,

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privilege and inequality and how these figure in the production violent harms. Where should responsibility be placed when violence gets coded as that which lies beyond the power of states, communities, families and individuals in how it manifests? How do we prevent, eliminate and remediate this violence? Some would even argue that such a move is meant to ensure that prevention and response work to address gendered violence would attract the kind of political will and resources necessary to meaningfully confront these harms during the pandemic. Unfortunately, this has not taken hold. In fact, activists across the region and the world continue to lament the erosion of already under-resourced state programming and actions to address gendered violence. With this context in mind, I turn to qualitative data from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as indicative of the complexities involved in confronting gendered violence against the backdrop of multiple and intersecting crises.

Delineating Gendered Violence in a Context of Multiple Crises: The Case of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines For a small island developing state like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), the convergence of the pandemic, explosive volcanic eruptions (April to May 2021), tropical storm Elsa (July 2021), a serious Dengue Fever outbreak and their attendant socio-economic impact have compounded the problem of gendered violence. Between May and June 2022, I conducted 11 interviews with representatives of state and civil society entities on their experiences of responding to women, girls, children and gender nonconforming persons affected by gendered violence, in a context of these multiple and intersecting crises. As previously indicated, a rise in the frequency and severity of gendered violence and the deepening of gender inequality during periods of heightened economic precarity, health crises and in the face of natural disasters are well documented in the literature (Rezwana and Pain 2021; Seddighi et  al. 2021; Dlamini 2021). Insights provided in the interviews not only confirm this reality but also provide nuance ways in which this violence unfolds, and the challenges of engaging in prevention and response work. Participants reiterated how the operation of existing gender systems and relations informed both access to services and violent continuities as

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the country confronted COVID-19 and explosive volcanic eruptions in 2021. A senior state representative with direct involvement in state-supported gender and anti-violence work, referred to here as Sade, made connections across people’s experiences with COVID-19, economic decline, the explosive volcanic eruptions and violence. According to Sade: As you mentioned, children were home and again we are back to the care-­ giving role where the woman should stay home. We had elderly homes closed. So now elder, the elderly had to stay home and the, automatically it was the woman’s role to stay home and … so they moved from a system of full-time work to more so part-time. Or there were situations where they had to give up their job or they were fired because of this. And the economic dependence on the men. When your house is accustomed, when you’re accustomed to two incomes and now it’s cut down to one. I don’t know, this is my personal opinion but when a woman is financially dependent on a man, they tend to now, that’s when the abuse comes out. So that was a situation where some women who had their small businesses because we know, the, the the small businesses were severely impacted by COVID. And women lost their small businesses and now they didn’t have their income that they were accustomed to and even men. A lot of men lost their jobs and more than, more cases I think … more than one cases where a woman would have probably called in for domestic violence or come in to report it. It would have been a situation where the man was working. He lost his job and then the frustration that all of this would have caused … because they say he didn’t, he never hit me before. I don’t know if that is true but they would have said that he never abused them before but because they’re not working, the frustration of it all now being you have to provide for a family and then there is no income coming in the house. That would have caused the abuse to increase or to start.

The analysis offered by Sade is indicative of how existing gender systems in which women’s unpaid labour and involvement in care activities, the violence to which they are exposed and access to meaningful livelihoods are interconnected. Work (paid and unpaid) and care are significantly imbricated in the lives of Caribbean women. Merle Hodge’s (2002) reminder that Caribbean women have always navigated the multiple forms of work; Rhoda Reddock’s (1994) interrogation of the sexual division of labour in Caribbean women’s labour histories; Andaiye’s (2020a) activist scholarship on the enormous price for women of their unwaged work and how this continues to underwrite the global economy; and global networks of socialist feminist analysis and activism, all point to the enduring

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gendered inequalities which women experience as we navigate unpaid labour and care. In any given society, labour markets, the economy and the state’s capacity to reproduce itself and its institutions, remain deeply connected to and reliant on women’s reproductive capacity, as well as women’s care and household activities. Globally, women spend between two and ten times more than men, on unpaid labour and care (Ferrant et al. 2014). Women’s unpaid labour and care activities increase significantly in times of crises, as we have seen with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; in times of natural disasters, during which women and children are far more likely to be displaced; as a consequence of climate change; in the face of food insecurity; and as countries confront economic precarity. This uneven burden of care and unpaid labour is even more acute for economically disadvantaged women. The connection to gendered violence, made by Sade in the above, requires some reflection. Her narrative makes clear how the loss of jobs and livelihoods for women and men, increased time at home for women and children and the increased burden of unpaid work and care activities for women, result in a greater likelihood for the perpetration of gendered violence by men. Sade’s suspicion about the claim that this was the first time that such violence occurred in some households is not at all misplaced, given that most women who do report violence often do so after it had been occurring for quite some time. What these claims of first reports of violence might in fact reveal, is a greater intensity and frequency of violent events. Delineating how gendered violence manifests in these contexts provides a useful point from which to create actions to prevent and protect against such harms. Like several of the other interviews conducted, Sade paints a layered picture of just how unequal arrangements of gender persists, are heightened in situations of crisis and how they animate the lives of women. Additional preliminary observation from data gathered during these interviews includes the ways in which service providers describe the challenges of responding to violence in a context of multiple and intersecting crises. In summary: • Shelter managers during the explosive volcanic eruptions were predominantly women who volunteered to serve in this role. There were cases in which men went to shelters to confront their female partners working as shelter managers with the claim that these

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women abandoned their households and household duties. Participants cited these incidents as acts of gendered violence. It is worth exploring whether women in healthcare and other professions, or jobs defined as frontline services, had similar experiences. Sociological research in the Caribbean, emerging from the COVID-19 experience, must extend to consider how work, family and violence are connected. • There were reports of cases in which shelter managers were unaware that some women resident at the shelters were in possession of restraining orders against abusive partners. This meant that abusive partners sometimes appeared at the same shelters with the women they had violently victimised. Participants cited the challenges of responding to multiple crisis events as compounding situations of harms to which women were already exposed. • The problem of child sexual abuse was acutely exposed as several teenage girls with one or two children accessed shelters during the explosive volcanic eruptions. In the case of sexual violence against minor girls, one participant noted that shelters became a refuge for some children (female and male) who were escaping sexual violence from male family members or male family friends. The natural disaster created greater visibility around the dangers to which minor girls and boys were exposed with the introduction of restrictions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus. These restrictions often meant that children were spending far more time in the company of their abusers. • There was an overall call for more gender-responsive disaster mitigation measures, planning and execution that take account of the increased risk of gendered violence against women and girls. • Participants described a strong correlation between increased unemployment as a result of the pandemic and increased levels of violence against women and girls. • There was concern expressed by some participants of the absence of actions which addressed specific housing and livelihood needs of disadvantaged gender nonconforming youth. These participants noted the absence of state provisions to support the needs of these youth, the fear by these youth to access services and the increased violence to which they are exposed in times of health and socio-economic crises and especially during the period of the explosive volcanic eruptions. While one civil society participant reported that her organisation was

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able to support by providing food supplies, she also observed that a group of gender nonconforming youth, whose living ­arrangements were precarious prior to the explosive eruptions, became further compromised once they had to flee from their accommodation in an abandoned home that was located in the red zone.3

Conclusion For women, girls and gender-nonconforming persons affected by gendered violence, it has never existed in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has animated the experience of those who are victimised with a level of lethality that well exceeds lives lost to COVID-19. This is a reality very well known to feminist thinkers/doers in the Caribbean and elsewhere. It is a reality that explains why Caribbean feminists and women’s rights activists have urged state planners to centre the realities of women, girls, children and gender nonconforming persons, all of whom are far more likely to suffer the effects of increasing levels of gendered violence in times of crisis. Observing the alacrity with which Caribbean states responded (and rightfully so) once the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic provides important context for the political move of affirming the increase in gendered violence as a ‘shadow pandemic’. While calling attention to the rise in violence, its potential as a strategy to effect change in how states attend to these gendered harms, during the pandemic, is less observable. State response remains wanting, even as those working to reduce and eliminate these harms have consistently demonstrated the unabated frequency and intensity with which such violence occurs within and outside of periods of crisis. Unfortunately, pre-existing inadequate action by the state did not improve with the introduction of measures to address the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, the situation for women and girls at home was made worse. This reflects what we know about the shifts in the incidence of gendered violence in times of crisis. It also reflects a deeper feminist observation about a historical tendency to reduce gendered violence to matters of private concern, which attracts less 3  Colours were assigned to different regions (zones) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines based on proximity to the volcano and the likelihood of destruction, injury and fatal consequences during the effusive and explosive phases of volcanic activity in the country. The designations were as follows: red zone (zone 1)—very high hazard; orange zone (zone 2)— high hazard; yellow zone (zone 3)—moderate hazard; green zone (zone 4)—low hazard.

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urgency than other criminalised forms of violence (Dobash et al. 2007), as well as a tendency to relegate issues that adversely affect women as less critical than or unconnected to matters related to the economy and the overall body politic. Countries in the Caribbean and across the world will continue to navigate COVID-19. At the time of writing this chapter, experts in healthcare had begun to anticipate that the world is possibly shifting from pandemic to endemic phase. The focus in the Caribbean and elsewhere has become how to live with the virus and its anticipated future mutations. While there remains much uncertainty on the way forward, what we do know is that Caribbean feminist, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ activists, as well as a range of community organisers, continue to work in ways that make visible the complexity of gendered violence in times of so-called calm and in times of crisis; work which remains critical in service of ending gendered violence. It is urgent that this analysis, as well as persons with expertise on the operation of gender and gender relations, also features in state and non-­ state attempts to build safer, more egalitarian and just societies for all citizens.

References Adey, Peter, Kevin Hannam, Mimi Sheller, and David Tyfield. 2021. Pandemic (Im) Mobilities. Mobilities 16 (1): 1–19. Andaiye. 2020a. Strike for a Millennium which Values all Women’s Work and all Women’s Lives: A Call to Action. In The Point is to Change the World, ed. Alissa Trotz, 254–258. London: Pluto Press. ———. 2020b. Knife Edge: Living with Domestic and Economic Violence. In The Point is to Change the World, ed. Alissa Trotz, 367–372. London: Pluto Press. Barriteau, Eudine. 1998. Theorizing Gender Systems and the Project of Modernity in the Twentieth-Century Caribbean. Feminist Review 59 (1): 186–210. Byron, Jessica, Jacqueline Laguardia Martinez, Annita Montoute, and Keron Niles. 2021. Impacts of COVID-19  in the Commonwealth Caribbean: Key Lessons. The Round Table 110 (1): 99–119. Campbell, Doris W., Jacqueline C. Campbell, Hossein N. Yarandi, Annie Lewis O’Connor, Emily Dollar, Cheryl Killion Elizabeth Sloand, Gloria B. Callwood, Nicole M. Cesar, Mona Hassan, and Faye Gary. 2016. Violence and Abuse of Internally Displaced Women Survivors of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. International Journal of Public Health 61 (8): 981–992. DeShong, Halimah A.F. 2018. The Language of Partner Violence in the Caribbean: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis. In Caribbean Crime and Criminal Justice:

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Impacts of Post-Colonialisms and Gender, ed. K.J.  Joonsen and C.  Bailey, 123–138. London: Routledge. Dlamini, Nobuhle Judy. 2021. Gender-based Violence, Twin Pandemic to COVID-19. Critical Sociology 47 (4–5): 583–590. Dobash, Rebecca E., Russell P.  Dobash, Kate Cavanagh, and Juanjo Medina-­ Ariza. 2007. Lethal and Non-Lethal Violence Against an Intimate Partner: Comparing Male Murderers to Non-Lethal Abusers. Violence Against Women 13 (4): 329–353. Eisma, Maarten C., and Paul A. Boelen. 2023. Commentary on: A call to action: Facing the shadow pandemic of complicated forms of grief. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying 87 (1): 334–340. Ferrant, Gaëlle, Luca Maria Pesando, and Keiko Nowacka. 2014. Unpaid Care Work: The Missing Link Between Gender Gaps in Labour Outcomes. OECD, Accessed March 25, 2022. https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-­gender/ Unpaid:care_work.pdf. Frazer, Elizabeth, and Kimberly Hutchings. 2020. The Feminist Politics of Naming Violence. Feminist Theory 21 (2): 199–216. Haynes, Tonya, and Halimah A.F. DeShong. 2017. Queering Feminist Approaches to Gender-Based Violence in the Anglophone Caribbean. Social and Economic Studies 66 (1&2): 105–131. Hodge, Merle. 2002. We Kinda Family. In Gendered Realities: Essays in Caribbean Feminist Thought, ed. Patricia Mohammed, 474–485. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press. Madumise-Pajibo, Brenda. 2020. To Women of South Africa GBV is Not a Shadow Pandemic; It is the Centre of their Existence. IOL News, May 18. Accessed January 9, 2023. https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/ to-­women-­in-­south-­africa-­gbv-­is-­not-­a-­shadow-­pandemic-­it-­is-­in-­the-­centre-­ of-­their-­existence-­48075159. Marques, Emanuele Souza, Claudia Leite, Maria de Moraes, Helena Hasselmann, Suely Ferreira Deslandes, and Michael Eduardo Reichenheim. 2020. Violence Against Women, Children, and Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Overview, Contributing Factors, and Mitigating Measures. Cadernos de Saude Publica 36 (4): e00074420. Mendez, Xhercis. 2015. Notes Toward a Decolonial Feminist Methodology: Revisiting the Race/Gender Matrix. Trans-scripts 5: 41–56. Mittal, Shalini, and Tushar Singh. 2020. Gender-based violence during COVID-19 pandemic: a mini-review. Frontiers in global women’s health 4. Nabukeera, Madinah. 2021. Prevention and Response to Gender-based Violence (GBV) During Novel Covid-19 Lock-down in Uganda. Journal of Adult Protection 23 (2): 116–133. Parry, Bianca Rochelle, and Errolyn Gordon. 2021. The Shadow Pandemic: Inequitable Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in South Africa. Gender, Work &

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Organization 28 (2): 795–806. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7675447/. Pitt, Kendra Ann. 2017. Exploring Domestic Violence Social Support Work in Postcolonial Trinidad and Tobago: Old Talk, New Conversations. PhD diss., University of Toronto (Canada). Reddock, Rhoda. 1994. Women, Labour & Politics in Trinidad & Tobago: A History. London: Zed Books. Rezwana, Nahid, and Rachel Pain. 2021. Gender-based Violence Before, During, and After Cyclones: Slow Violence and Layered Disasters. Disasters 45 (4): 741–761. Roure, Jodie G. 2019. The Reemergence of Barriers During Crises & Natural Disasters: Bender-Based Violence Spikes Among Women & LGBTQ+ Persons During Confinement. Whitehead J. Diplomatic & International Relations 21: 23. Seddighi, Hamed, Ibrahim Salmani, Mohhamad Hossein Javadi, and Saeideh Seddighi. 2021. Child Abuse in Natural Disasters and Conflicts: A Systematic Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 22 (1): 176–185. Trotz, D.  Alissa. 2004. Between Despair and Hope: Women and Violence in Contemporary Guyana. Small Axe 8 (1): 1–20. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2012. Summary: Caribbean Human Development Report 2012: Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security. UNDP. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.undp. org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/publications/caribbean%20hdr%20 2012%20summary%20final.pdf. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). 2020. Violence Against Women and Girls: ‘The Shadow Pandemic’, Statement Delivered by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women. April 06. Accessed May 11, 2021. https://www. unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/4/statement-­ed-­phumzile-­violence-­ against-­women-­during-­pandemic. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) 2021. Summary Status of Women and Men Report—The Impacts of COVID-19: A Gender Analysis of the Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Men in 12 Caribbean Countries. UN Women February/March. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://caribbean.unwomen.org/sites/default/ files/Field%20Office%20Caribbean/Attachments/Publications/2021/ 20210413%20Summary%20Report%20COVID-­19%209%20interactive.pdf. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Antigua and Barbuda. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women.

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United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Belize. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Dominica. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Grenada. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Jamaica. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in St. Lucia. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi-country Office Caribbean, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project. 2021. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Disaster Risk in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Policy Brief. November 2021. UN Women. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean. 2020. Continuation of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Gender-based Violence Services During COVID-19 Annual Report. UNFPA.

CHAPTER 3

A Clinical Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence During COVID-19 in Jamaica Karen Carpenter

Background The COVID-19 pandemic changed everyday living conditions worldwide in unexpected ways, including placing victims and perpetrators in constant contact with each other and in situations that were likely to increase the levels of psychological distress for both. Global statistics point to the alarmingly high rates of violence against women and girls which currently stand at approximately 30% of the female population 15 years and over, excluding sexual harassment cases (Dahlberg and Krug 2006). The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) define gender-based violence (GBV) as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”

K. Carpenter (*) Institute for Gender & Development Studies, The University of the West Indies Mona, Kingston, Jamaica e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 S. Roberts et al. (eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31119-2_3

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(World Health Organization 2022). This includes economic, psychological, emotional, physical and sexual acts of violence (UN Women 2022). Acts of physical violence are more frequently perpetrated against younger women under 24 but also continue to plague older women who live in mid and lower socio-economic conditions. Around the world some 22% of women living in less developed countries have experienced at least one act of GBV in the last year. A review of ten separate studies that quantify gender-based violence showed that “[i]ntimate partner violence, physical violence, and rape were the three categories of violence most frequently measured. Globally, rates of intimate partner violence tended to be quite high across all of the studies—much higher than most of the rates of wartime rape and sexual violence perpetrated by individuals outside of the home” (Stark and Ager 2011, 1). The toll of all forms of violence against women and girls presents a real economic cost to countries in development, and at the personal level, women who experience violence are more prone to mental health challenges, unexpected pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (ibid.). Intimate partner violence is of particular psychological concern because the very nature of the violence suggests a contradiction in terms, because the violence is perpetrated in what should otherwise be a safe and caring relationship. In Jamaica indices for physical and/or sexual IPV over a lifetime stand at 27.8% (UN Global Database on Violence 2016). In the Caribbean, Le Franc et  al. (2008) conducted a three-country study of sexual and physical IPV and psychological aggression in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago (n = 3401). Of the three countries, Jamaica reported the highest levels of violence overall, at the time. The researchers concluded that the high levels of violence reported are an indication of the socio-cultural tolerance of interpersonal violence among victims and an acceptance of conflictual romantic relationships. Notwithstanding this, the research showed that violence between individuals in the wider society did not necessarily correlate with indices of intimate partner violence. Perpetrators of social and public assault were not generally the perpetrators of intimate partner violence in the home. Jamaica, for example, reported higher levels of physical violence outside of relationships, compared to both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, but there were no significant, between-country differences for physical violence within relationships; all fell within an incidence range of 40–54%, with Jamaica at the lower end. Even when the more severe forms of violence between partners are considered, Jamaica with the lowest

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economic development indices and the highest levels of violence overall reported fewer events than either Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago. (Le Franc et al. 2008). This aforementioned study helps to distinguish between the generalised violence and assault that take place in the public arena and the interpersonal violence between partners. It underscores what has been established elsewhere in psychological and psychiatric literature regarding the differences in both types of violence.

Violence Prevention Models “Together, we can and must prevent violence everywhere, from war zones to people’s homes, as we work to beat COVID-19”, António Guterres, UN Secretary-General (UN 2020). The most widely used public health conceptualisation of violence in the home and the larger society is the socio-ecological model (Aronica et  al. n.d.). The model, derived from Bronfrenbrenner’s eco-systems theory of childhood development (Bronfenbrenner 1979), proposes four levels of prevention and intervention for public health issues such as domestic violence starting with the individual, then the relationship and expanding outward to the community and larger society. The proposition as it relates to IPV is that where a society and community support violence in general, a violent individual is more likely to act out within their interpersonal relationships. Exposure to violence in childhood can also increase the likelihood that an individual will solve problems through violence in later life (Norlander and Eckhardt 2005). This may have led to the belief that all violent individuals are the same and people who are violent in one context are also violent everywhere. However, studies such as the one cited earlier provide statistical evidence to the contrary and support the view that the individual who batters an intimate partner must be examined with a different lens from the person who commits a public assault. The four levels of the ecological model have been widely employed to address domestic violence from the victim support perspective, yet they provide a roadmap for addressing perpetrator behaviour as well. The WHO articulates a public health approach that outlines the treatment of violence from: (a) level 1: preventing violence before it actually takes place; (b) level 2: responding to violence as quickly after its occurrence in assisting the victims; (c) level 3: rehabilitation of perpetrators and providing trauma support for victims over the long term (Dalberg and Krug 2006). A great deal of emphasis has been placed on the second level of prevention, despite the fact that victims

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are rarely in a position to positively affect the behaviours of attackers. The statistics bear out the fact that a majority of men (